I wish more artists would mix solo and orchestral repertoire like this. It makes for a delightful programme that will appeal to those of riper years as much as it will to children – and the pianist’s growing legion of fans, for whom Isata Kanneh-Mason has provided an entrée to the previously closed world of classical music. The user-friendly presentation gives separate tracks for each of Mozart’s 12 variations, for the 14 sections of the Dohnányi and, more routinely, the six parts of Children’s Corner and the 13 of Kinderszenen (though to label the latter two in the track-listing as ‘Variations’ is plain wrong, just as it is somewhat misleading for the booklet writer to define ‘genius pianist’ Dohnányi merely as a ‘professor of piano in Florida’).

Kanneh-Mason begins, as she did her live recitals last year of the three solo works presented here, with the Mozart Variations. In the studio, as in the concert hall, it is the standout performance of the three, her light-fingered dexterity and minimal pedal ideally attuned to the work’s good-humoured mischief. The Debussy and Schumann are fine but less remarkable. I thought the (renamed) ‘Cakewalk’ far too fussy and the final two Childhood Scenes unnaturally gloomy. Besides, ‘Der Dichter spricht’ makes as unsatisfactory a finale in concert as it does on disc. Why not something from Prole do bebê, for example? Especially in the light of the Mozart and what follows it, the highlight of the CD: Dohnányi’s Variations on a Nursery Song.

It is so good to see someone of Isata Kanneh-Mason’s generation championing this once-popular work, now puzzlingly neglected. And this account is right up there with the best. I placed Howard Shelley with Mathias Bamert (Chandos, 9/99) in the top spot for my Gramophone Collection (8/17), regretting the absence in the current catalogue of Earl Wild’s recording with the composer’s grandson, Christoph von Dohnányi (Chesky). This new recording can stand comparison with both – it’s that good. Domingo Hindoyan gets things going with an Introduction that will have newcomers to the work jumping out of their skins. Throughout, the RLPO is at its thoroughbred best, with some first-class woodwind contributions notable in a full-bodied realisation of Dohnányi’s technicolour score. The piano is well to the fore but recording engineer Philip Siney has managed this without obscuring any orchestral detail. It’s a work that is perfectly suited to Kanneh-Mason’s mercurial touch and one she and her partners deliver with compelling aplomb.