If it used to be true that Ronald Stevenson’s piano music attracted less than its share of first-rate pianists, the situation has rapidly changed for the better. Peter Jablonski continues his enterprising series for Ondine with a wide-ranging selection of shorter pieces: one that includes several premiere recordings, and which amounts to as representative an anthology of this composer’s sizeable output for his own instrument as could reasonably be imagined.

It makes sense to begin with the Peter Grimes Fantasy (1971), given these seven minutes not only convey the essence of Britten’s opera but also Stevenson’s concern to blur any boundary between transcription and original composition. Manru will likely remain an opera more talked of than heard, so listeners will enjoy their encounter with Paderewski’s magnum opus via this Suite (1961), whose four contrasted movements amount to a plausible overview, idiomatically recast, which makes more widely accessible some appealing music – not least the sultrily ominous ‘Gypsy Song’ and scintillating panache of ‘Cracovienne’. A late project, Stevenson’s paraphrase on the Romance from Mozart’s D minor Piano Concerto (2002) teases out the latent pathos from music which, in context, can easily become bland or uninvolving.

Amazingly, this left-hand ‘elaboration’ of the Act 3 quintet from Wagner’s Meistersinger has not previously been recorded, and emerges with its emotional depths newly plumbed. The playfully sardonic Ostinato macabro (1980) then the wittily acerbic Étudette (1987) find Stevenson cross-pollinating the idioms of other composers with almost horticultural skill, though it is the Six Pensées (1959) that are the real highlight as elements from several Chopin Preludes (with a little help from his Études and sonatas) are brought into unexpected synthesis in what is a testament to Stevenson’s wholly individual appropriation of the Busoni aesthetic. The remaining items – from the pert humour of the Little Jazz Variations (1964/75) to the eloquent Gershwin homage of the Preludette (1981) – fill out the picture still further.

Always an intelligent and responsive interpreter, Jablonski demonstrates an identification with Stevenson’s thinking, whatever the stylistic guises, with unfailing pianistic finesse. Those daunted by Christopher Guild’s ongoing edition (Toccata Classics) should hear this new release alongside the extensive anthologies by Kenneth Hamilton (Prima Facie) and Murray McLachlan (Divine Art). With clear and natural piano sound, this is strongly recommended.

This review originally appeared in the SPRING 2025 issue of International Piano