Following his acclaimed recordings of Thalberg, Chaminade and Alkan (he aims to record the complete works of the latter two over the next few years), Mark Viner continues his mission of championing unjustly neglected works from the 19th century.

Considering his almost complete absence from recital programmes today, Felix Blumenfeld (1863-1931) is fairly well represented on disc. His 24 Preludes of 1892 was one of the first important sets of its kind since Chopin’s Op 28 (1839) and indeed is modelled on them, starting in C major, and as with Chopin’s progressing to the relative minor then to the dominant (G major) and its relative minor, and so on. Few of Blumenfeld’s Preludes are as epigrammatic as some of Chopin’s are (the ones in E minor, A major and C minor, for instance), nor do they have such memorable melodies; many more resemble concert études. Yet here is a wealth of glorious music that surely deserves to be better known, for not one of them lacks some outstanding motif or attractive figuration, and all of them – as you would expect of the teacher of Horowitz and Barere – lie comfortably under the hands. Try No 11 (B major), storming to a rousing climax, and its successor, a taxing octave study. Everyone will have their own favourite (currently, mine is the impassioned No 15 in D flat); perhaps yours will be No 19, an obvious homage to the Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde (Blumenfeld conducted the Russian premiere).

Mark Viner’s superb technical assurance and elegant rubato serve these forgotten gems magnificently well. He is innately attuned to this genre – and, not incidentally, also supplies his own detailed, first-rate booklet notes. And there I would have left it with the heartiest of welcomes were it not for the world-premiere recordings of the Op 17 Preludes by Philip Thomson (Ivory Classics, recorded 1998-99). Thomson, playing a Baldwin piano, is more clearly and intimately recorded than Viner in his empty church acoustic, and adopts significantly brisker tempos for all 24 Preludes to the advantage of their emotional impact and individual character. He adds six Impromptus and four Preludes to his album; Viner offers two Études, one of them Blumenfeld’s famous piece for the left hand alone, dispatched with authority and not a little charm.