For lovers of the obscure and arcane, this programme could hardly be bettered. Who has ever heard of Julie von Webenau (1813 87) and her morceaux de fantaisie L’Adieu et le Retour, Op 25, dedicated to Robert Schumann? Or any of Theodor Kirchner’s Preludes, Op 9 (dedicated to Clara Schumann)? There is Brahms’s Schumann Variations (the later Op 23 set for four hands, rather than the Op 9 Bunte Blätter variations), and a Brahms premiere recording. In addition to all this, any piano enthusiast’s eyes will light up at the sight of the names of Andreas Groethuysen and Yaara Tal on a CD cover. But what’s this? Tal gets top billing, her duo-partner husband relegated to associate artist status along with the others listed above.

So plenty to intrigue even before opening the disc, and typical of the Tal and Groethuysen discography. In the event, however, anticipation does not quite equate to realisation. The first time I listened through, my attention kept wandering. I left it a couple of days and tried again: the same thing. This has nothing to do with the playing of Yaara Tal or the performances of anyone else or the standard of the recording, all of which are uniformly excellent (as, by the way, is the booklet). There is, simply, little in the piano solos that grabs the attention, sticks in the memory or urges you to return again. Even the Schumann Variations, dedicated to Julie Schumann (a daughter of Robert and Clara with whom Brahms was infatuated), are a mixed blessing, Schumann’s divine theme providing Brahms with 10 gloomy variations ending in a funeral march.

The Brahms premiere is the Alto Rhapsody in a fashionably transgender arrangement. Rather than an alto, male choir and orchestra, we are given a tenor, female choir and piano (using Brahms’s own piano score). The piece was written on the occasion of the wedding of Julie Schumann – two unutterably miserable verses before a final sublime prayer. Here, somehow, that wonderful radiant ending of acceptance and reconcilement does not quite hit the mark.

Piano solos, a piano duet and a choral work: I wish more record labels would countenance mixed programmes such as this. In this case, though, the choices of intertwined dedications are more interesting on paper than the strength of their musical content. ‘Love?’ No. Respect.