From the 1960s Felicja Blumental made a speciality of recording music outside the regular repertoire – a kind of female Michael Ponti without the technique but with very much the same tonal opaqueness. Born in Warsaw in 1908 (not 1918 as many books have it), she studied composition with Szymanowski. Later, having become a Brazilian citizen, she was the dedicatee of Villa-Lobos’s Fifth Concerto; Penderecki and Lutoslawski also wrote works for her. She died in 1991.

As with many of her recordings, one is grateful for the opportunity of hearing such an idiosyncratic choice of music while regretting that it is not played with more imagination. The Bach, Corelli and Gluck (no transcribers are credited for the last two) are dreadfully dull; the Moonlight glimmers dimly through a blanket of cloud. The quality of the various pianos used changes with each selection, as does the recorded sound. Some are decent enough stereo recordings, some are taken from 78s and a number appear to have been recorded in someone’s front room on a cassette recorder. Brana is silent on their provenance, as it is on the composers and their music.

Yet there are some truly lovely things here – the title-track is a catchy encore, the Szymanowski and Villa-Lobos items are persuasively done, and she offers a rare chance to hear the charming little Kabalevsky Sonatina, Weill’s Tangoballade and, best of all, Kuhlau’s Sonatina (1819). The surprise of this teaching piece appearing on a recording was matched by this listener’s pleasure of hearing a childhood friend played with such affecting simplicity.