Ever been to a party when little Francesca (‘she’s so musical’) or the adorable Ben (‘his teacher says he’s really talented’) are trotted out by their proud parents to play for the assembled company? The guests stand around in polite silence listening to an apparently interminable and certainly formless composition of the prodigy’s own making being clumped out on the family Yamaha (‘second-hand, old boy, absolute bargain’). Listening to this disc reminded me forcibly of such occasions as Francesca’s limited arsenal of left-hand chords (tonic, dominant, subdominant) are thumped out in a regular four-square rhythm, not always connected to the tuneless monotony of the right hand.

True, both the attraction and popular appeal of Michael Nyman’s music have remained a closely guarded secret as far as this listener is concerned (pace The Draughtsman’s Contract) but this recording featuring the composer in ‘personal interpretations of pieces originally composed for film soundtracks between 1993 and 2003’ simply adds to the mystery. Occasionally among these almost uniformly downbeat musings there is a glimpse of melodic grace (‘Debbie’, for instance, from Wonderland) even if these rely on Baroque inflections. Perhaps another pianist would have made less of the heavily voiced chordal playing and more of the lyrical elements but Nyman himself is unable to support the assertion of the disc’s title.