In 2006 EMI signed the 25-year old American Jonathan Biss to an exclusive two-year contract. This is the partnership’s first fruit. I hope there is much more to come, for this is Schumann-playing on an exalted level with performances of all three works that bear comparison with the finest. Schumann’s youthful declaration of love in the Fantasie is echoed by Biss’s obvious love for the ardent score. On the technical side, passages such as the treacherous close of the March are seen off with convincing relish. Biss’s musicality and maturity also make for an outstanding Kreisleriana. The spirit of Cortot hovers over this reading: try the fugal section of No 7 (Sehr rasch), thrillingly attacked by both pianists in a way that quite eludes Pollini and sounds blandly academic in Rubinstein’s hands. Biss, for whose grandmother, Raya Garbousova, Barber composed his Cello Concerto, and whose mother is the violinist Miriam Fried, is living proof that musical genes are inherited.

The Argentine pianist Marta Felcman is clearly a decent pianist, though her website boasts of an “international reputation” and “interpretive genius” are a little optimistic on this evidence. Recorded on a rich-toned, well voiced Hamburg Steinway in a small studio acoustic, Felcman gives considered, thoughtful performances of all three works. But with the greater talents of, say, Michelangeli (and to a lesser extent, Richter) in Faschingsschwank ranged against her, she would have had an uphill battle to attract attention on an international label. As it is, the disc’s insert and cover photograph smack of the home-owned ink-jet printer. There are no notes on pianist, music or composer. All things considered, a bit of courageous kite-flying.