“Authentic performances” on piano rolls transferred to other media must be approached with a healthy degree of scepticism. So much relies on the instrument used, the consistency and regulation of the recording and reproduction mechanisms, and the sensitivity of the operator. Kenneth Caswell’s Pieran label is one of the most convincing. In Tacet we have another. Already issued on their series of Welte Mignon rolls are performances by Richard Strauss, Reger, Mahler and Reinecke, but this volume of recordings made by Josef Lhévinne on October 6, 1906, and July 7, 1911, is particularly valuable when you consider the tiny number of discs he made considering his status as one of the great pianists of the era (Anton Rubinstein conducted his concerto debut in 1889; he died in 1944).

For repertoire junkies, the 21 rolls reflect a distinct keyboard personality – and a different aesthetic to our own day. You are unlikely to hear Paul de Schlözer’s dazzling Etude in E flat, Czerny’s “Octave” Etude or Godard’s Scherzo “En route”. There is, admittedly, a fair amount of music well past its sell-by date. Not even Lhévinne can persuade me that the four Rubinstein works or Moszkowski’s surprisingly banal Minuet in G were worth his attention. To compensate are the Strauss-Schulz-Evler Blue Danube (which, unlike Lhévinne’s famous 1928 disc, has its florid introduction), the Schumann Toccata and Weber’s Perpetuum mobile exhilaratingly despatched in an extraordinary 3'39". Fine notes on the pianist and the Welte Mignon system.