Polish pianist Hubert Rutkowski has previously given us world-premiere recordings of music by Chopin’s friend and pupil Julian Fontana. There were no lost masterpieces on that occasion and neither are there any among the 22 short works presented here (many do not stray beyond pastiche), but any of the best of them would furnish an encore to keep the piano buffs guessing.

The most celebrated of the four pupils is Karol Mikuli (1819-97), the teacher of Michaπowski, Rosenthal and Koczalski (his G minor Polonaise actually quotes Chopin’s F sharp minor Polonaise, Op 44). The seven pieces by the Norwegian Thomas Tellefsen (1823-74) are, arguably, the least susceptible to inspiration and originality. The six by Carl Filtsch (1830-45) are the most interesting. One of the great wunderkinds of the 19th century (Liszt said he would “have to shut up shop when this little one begins to tour”), Filtsch died in Venice from peritonitis aged 15. If his accomplished Impromptu in G flat is an incestuously close relative of Chopin’s A flat Impromptu, his prophetically titled Das Lebewohl von Venedig is a touching discovery and is beautifully played. Adolph Gutmann (1819-82), to whom Chopin dedicated his C sharp minor Scherzo, has left us with a pleasing, if derivative, Nocturne in A flat, while his Le réveil des oiseaux is a delightful salon dazzler that Moszkowski might have penned. Rutkowski plays with a great deal of charm and poetic sensibility, he has been well recorded and altogether, at a generous 78'50", his latest visit to the archives is a most attractive bargain.