Martin Jones is one of Britain’s most-recorded pianist, with complete sets of Mendelssohn and Brahms (to name but two) offset by an inclusive view of the Spanish repertoire – Nin and Halffter as well as Falla, Granados and Albéniz – and one offbeat surprise after another. For his latest offering he gives a three-CD set of Jean Françaix’s music for solo piano, duo and duet, a side-step from the glories of Debussy, Fauré and Ravel that will delight all lovers of French chic and sophistication. Admirers of the heavyweights of the repertoire may frown at Françaix’s way of peppering even the simplest of ideas with mischievous slants and asides but only a puritan will resist a smile at so much wit, charm and volubility.

Take the opening Scherzo, for example, Françaix’s first mature work, a scintillating caper spun off by Jones with enviable assurance and dexterity. Try ‘La Moderne’ from the Cinq Portraits de jeunes filles, where the girl of the title parades her up-to-the-mark finery with insouciance and aplomb. The wild moto perpetuo of ‘En cas de délire’ from the Cinq ‘Bis’ is offset by the simplicity of the Trois Esquisses sur les touches blanches, making you grateful for a momentary cessation of business while La promenade d’un musicologue eclectique parades naughty but affectionate portraits of various composers for our delectation (rapidly pirouetting for Scarlatti, gentle and melancholic for Chopin).

All this music is played with dazzling wit and style by Martin Jones, whose duo and duet partners are Richard McMahon and Adrian Farmer respectively. Nimbus’s sound is excellent throughout and the frontispiece, Harlequin Balancing on a Unicycle, is entirely apt. The warmest possible recommendation.