Here is a fine, enterprising recital to delight and above all surprise those accustomed to Harold Schonberg’s image of Moscheles as a crusty conservative, one who ‘practised the piano and watched the world go by’. Admired by Beethoven, Schumann and Mendelssohn, his Etudes, while hardly as original as the greatest examples of the genre, are sufficiently alive with interest to merit the warmest praise from Mendelssohn, though even his proverbial fluency was thwarted by their intricacies.

Moscheles himself was aware of the advance from his early Op 70 Studies, of throwing down the gauntlet to ‘Thalberg, Liszt and all such players who will find their work cut out’. The Op 95 set, in particular, offers kaleidoscopic challenges enlivened by picturesque titles. In ‘Wrath’ a conventional idea is transformed into a series of fist-shaking gestures, and ‘Juno’ is clearly a formidable lady who bestrides the stage Allegro maestoso, very much in the style of Shakespeare’s goddess (‘Great Juno comes. I know her by her gait’). Mendelssohn must have been touched by ‘A Children’s Tale,’ a tribute to his own charm, and ‘Bacchanale’ and the Allegresse from Op 111 suggest how Moscheles sometimes longed to break into Alkanesque oddity or outrage. In ‘Affection’ the harmonic undertow is enterprising, while ‘Carnival Scenes’ recalls Schumann’s love of dotted rhythms.

For hard-working Piers Lane, who has already recorded Etudes by Scriabin and Saint-Saëns, this demanding undertaking was clearly a labour of love and all his performances are of an enviable grace, fluency and affection. The outstanding notes are by Henry Roche, the composer’s great-great-grandson, and Hyperion’s sound and presentation (includ-ing a reproduction of ‘Moscheles’ London drawing-room’, a painting attributed to Mendelssohn) are superb.