Listening to this recital I felt as though I were a guest at a sumptuous banquet. The menu, with its tasty hors d’oeuvre, substantial classic dish as the main course followed by a variety of unexpected and nourishing desserts, is perfectly balanced – enough to fill you without being bloated, and nothing that is hard to chew or liable to give you indigestion. But it is the different wines accompanying each course that make this meal special, that is to say the discriminating premier cru tone, touch (what magically hushed pianissimos) and masterly pedalling to which the diners are treated, each element adjusted to each composer yet all unmistakably Stephen Hough – vintage Hough at that, for here is a pianist at the height of his powers.

This is the sort of programme and style of playing redolent of the socalled Golden Age of Rachmaninov, Hofmann, Godowsky, Cortot et al but which, in this earnest urtext era, is encountered all too infrequently. The Mendelssohn (with some seriously brisk tempi – try variations Nos 8 and 9) and a taut, crisply articulated account of Beethoven’s Op 111 explore two aspects of variation form.

The “second half” is devoted to waltz time, beginning with Weber’s pioneering Invitation (1819), the earliest work in this recital. For some unaccountable reason it is rarely heard in its original form these days. Hough’s is the finest performance I have ever heard – and that includes Ignaz Friedman – exuberant, seductive and scintillating by turns with the repeats (all are given) subtly varied second time round. After two delectably suave Chopin waltzes, Hough offers three contrasted Gallic takes on 3/4 time, imbuing each with the kind of affection and charm for which Cherkassky was famous. After this he cleverly takes us gently by the ear via Liszt’s nostalgic Valse oubliée No 1 to the pianistic diablerie of his Mephisto Waltz No 1. Rounding off this masterclass is Hough’s own witty transformation of Waltzing Matilda from its normal duple time to triple time. A great piano recording and front runner for instrumental disc of the year.