Cécile Chaminade had two things going against her as a composer. The first was that she was a woman in a man’s world; the second that she produced so many works (around 400) that it’s easy to be bamboozled by her fecundity. Add to that the fact that she was also very long-lived – so her music had fallen out of fashion well before her death in 1944.

Johann Blanchard is not yet 30 and came across Chaminade’s music almost by accident (the story involves a relative’s garage, a diplomat’s pianist son and 20 boxes of scores and manuscripts). What attracted him was the sheer range of Chaminade’s music and that is certainly demonstrated in this thoughtfully chosen programme, which he performs on a well-preserved Steinway from 1901. He begins with her C minor Sonata, a striking combination of high emotions, serious virtuosity and a penchant for fugal writing. Its second movement is an extended reverie in which Blanchard revels in the subtlety of her textures, while the finale has a Schumannesque tumultuousness about it.

The Etudes show a different side of the composer and they are full of deft touches, whether in the delicate roulades that feather the lines of the Etude symphonique or the gentleness of the outer portions of ‘Automne’ from the Etudes de concert, Op 35. In the Etude pathétique Blanchard gives his all, clarifying the sometimes dense writing, while the Etude mélodique flows effortlessly. There were times where an even bigger technique might have come in handy in order to give a more insouciant virtuosity to numbers such as the ‘Tarantelle’ from Op 35 or the fiery central section of ‘Automne’. But the final Souvenir d’enfance, a world premiere recording, is charmingly done.