Vladimir Dukelsky left Russia shortly after the 1917 revolution and his career as a serious composer was based in New York and Paris. He wrote a piano concerto for Rubinstein, a ballet for Diaghliev and was taken up by Koussevitzky. It was Gershwin who encouraged him to change his name to Vernon Duke and to concentrate unashamedly on popular music. His stage shows, film scores and songs – everybody knows April in Paris – brought him a wide audience.

He wrote solo piano pieces, too, including 10 pieces, hitherto virtually unknown, on this disc. The style is a kind of Hollywood novelty piano – less memorable than Billy Mayerl but Duke’s conservatory training at Kiev gave him a flawless command of his materials. Alex Hassan – who works for the Pentagon when not playing and studying – plays the sheet music of the solo pieces and then makes his own arrangements of 12 songs plus a medley from the stage show Ziegfield Follies of 1936.

Hassan is as idiomatic and convincing, as he has been on previous CDs of this type of music: ‘Honeymoon for Three’ (Shellwood) has his stunning accompaniments to revelatory Mayerl songs. The piano is slightly tinny but there are good notes and presentation.