Still in his early 50s, Nimrod Borenstein is rapidly establishing himself among the most recorded of contemporary composers in the UK. This latest release provides a viable overview of his music for solo piano, which is growing exponentially alongside his greater output.

As his booklet note makes clear, Borenstein came to the writing of études through a test piece for the 2014 Hong Kong International Piano Competition that expanded into a project for 24 such pieces across four books of six (the third of these currently in progress). The First Book is notable for its stylistic diversity – showpieces such as the ‘Ostinato’ and ‘Arpeggio’ studies rubbing shoulders with a mesmeric ‘Half Moon’ study and culminating in a ‘Mephisto Étude’ that pays tribute to the ‘golden age’ of piano virtuosity. Less wide-ranging expressively (likely reflecting its briefer genesis), the Second Book features the ingenious ‘Hidden Melodies’ and the bristling ‘Toccata’ studies en route to the overt sensuality of the ‘Japanese Gardens Étude’.

Reminiscences of Childhood (2012) comprises three pieces that feature the classiest pianistic promotional in ‘Lucilla’s Beehive’ and the disarming poise of ‘The Melancholic Mobile’ (in its sculptural rather than technological sense). This has previously been recorded by Nadav Hertzka (Skarbo, 2019) in the context of music by Janáček, but Tra Nguyen – established as the leading exponent of Joachim Raff – is no less attuned to their charms. She rounds out this recital with the evocative Water Droplets in Venice (2019) and appealingly pensive Lullaby (2018), two more pieces whose suitability as encores is no less true of this collection overall.