Let me introduce you to Arseny Tarasevich-Nikolaev, a young Russian pianist of whom you will probably not have heard unless you remember the announcement in the June 2017 issue of this magazine of his signing to Decca Classics and Universal Music Australia, the first time the two labels have collaborated. The result is ‘Reflections’, another of those meaningless disc titles – and, in this case, a singularly unimaginative one shared with well over a dozen other current piano recordings. It seems strange that a debut CD contains no biography of the artist. All we are told is that he is the grandson of the great Tatiana Nikolayeva no less (Wikipedia reveals that she died in November 1993, just nine months after Arseny was born). Believe me, he has inherited her musical genes.

To get an immediate idea of what kind of pianist I was going to hear, I turned first to the final track, the Behr Rachmaninov Polka de WR. Here was elegance, charm, playfulness, clever voicing and an immaculate technique in a performance light years from the mauling of Moye Chen (see above). Then to the opening Six Moments musicaux. I have rarely heard the melancholy of the first of these captured to such heartbreaking effect, nor the impassioned outbursts of Nos 4 and 6 played with such unbridled vehemence – when Rachmaninov asks for furioso and ffff he gets it.

Two of Medtner’s Forgotten Melodies and Scriabin’s two Poèmes are further confirmation of a colourist par excellence (the rich, burnished tone Tarasevich-Nikolaev produces throughout a wide dynamic range is a noteworthy feature of the disc) before the centrepiece of Prokofiev’s Visions fugitives. I found this fascinating when set alongside those which the composer recorded in 1935. In some I preferred the former, in others the latter, who always ensures that the generic title of his collection is significant (compare the two pianists in No 10, marked Ridicolosamente, and you’ll see what I mean). Further delights await us after the balm of the Tchaikovsky ‘Lullaby’ in Rachmaninov’s arrangement: two studies from the 24 Concert Études, Op 13, by Tarasevich-Nikolaev’s grandmother, the first of these (No 18, Andante sostenuto) ending with barely audible ppp high E sharps. Other pianists will surely want to investigate.

This is as outstanding a recent debut recording as I can recall, helped in no small measure by the dream team of producer Jeremy Hayes, engineer Ben Connellan and piano technician Graham Cooke at Potton Hall. Quite why it has taken 18 months to be released is a mystery.