The annual Husum disc, issued just before the succeeding year’s festival opens, aims to represent every pianist invited to play. Of necessity, therefore, the disc can only accommodate shorter works. This may give the impression to an outsider of a festival devoted to encores and trivia. Nothing could be further from the truth. Yuri Favorin, for instance, is heard in a single movement from his complete performance of Alkan’s Grand Sonate, Op 33, Les quatre âges – very far from a trivial affair – while Cyprien Katsaris’s amazing 18-minute improvisation Hommage à Liszt (I caught bits of Tchaikovsky, Wagner, Khachaturian and Rachmaninov along the way) was only part of a programme which included his arrangement for solo piano of Liszt’s Piano Concerto No 2.

The track brevity of each Husum compilation has, though, at least two advantages, demonstrating that it is quite possible for a disc of recital highlights to be entertaining as well as spiritually nourishing, and that pianists, as much as their audiences, can have a mutually rewarding time going off piste. A Husum recital will generally leave the audience with a smile on its face rather than in a catatonic trance. Try Husum favourite Jonathan Plowright in Harold Craxton’s charming pastiche Siciliano and Rigadon (not a typo but the English spelling), Mompou’s graceful ‘Segreto’ (from his first published collection, Impresiones intimes) and, in the disc’s final item, Jack Fina’s Bumble Boogie. It brought the house down and – NB pianists everywhere! – an invitation to return the following year.

A few of the pieces here are less interesting than others, an inevitable consequence of Husum’s adventurous programming and cavalier spirit of curiosity. But the greater part of the disc, like the majority of Husum recitals (all of which, incidentally, have been preserved since 1987 complete – a unique legacy for future generations, should a generous sponsor emerge to allow them to be heard) is a treasure chest of forgotten or unknown gems.