I did not think Martin James Bartlett’s debut album for Warner Classics (6/19) showed him in the best possible light. It seemed (and at times sounded) like a disc put together by a committee. This one is different. This showcases an outstanding keyboard talent at the top of his game in repertoire that he clearly has an affinity and fondness for.

He opens with the Paganini Rhapsody, the piano placed well forwards in proceedings but not to the exclusion of the woodwind, brass and strings. It’s the work with which he won the BBC Young Musician competition in 2014 and is delivered here with as much verve and confidence as imagination and insight. Joshua Weilerstein and Bartlett seem to be of one mind, and tempo relationships between the 24 variations (each one, incidentally, usefully granted a separate track number) are beautifully judged – listen to the way they slip from the haunting end of Var 17 into the famous 18th. The most demanding sections, such as the scherzando solo part of Var 15 or the terrifying triplets of Var 24, are crisply articulated to exhilarating effect.

The other work with the LPO is Rhapsody in Blue, another piece that Bartlett has had in his fingers for a long time and clearly enjoys. He plays with a smile on his face and that somehow finds its way into his fingers. This is only completely successful if you don’t mind someone fiddling about with the solo piano part. Bartlett is not the first pianist to think he can improve things with added grace notes, dotted rhythms (à la Bernstein) and a glissando in the central meno mosso e poco scherzando section.

In between are the solo items, recorded at St Jude’s, London, with its wonderful acoustic and a piano in whose full, rich tone Bartlett luxuriates. As on his earlier disc, the sound he conjures from the instrument is a joy to hear, whether in Earl Wild’s extravagant and ecstatic transcription of Rachmaninov’s ‘Vocalise’ or Gershwin’s own arrangements of his songs. Bartlett captures the spirit of these entertaining bonbons to perfection.

Warner’s booklet, complete with typo, is way below the standard one should expect from a major label.