In March 2000‚ I lamented the lack of outstanding recordings of Moscheles’ music and suggested a golden opportunity for Hyperion’s Romantic Piano Concerto series. My prayer is answered by Howard Shelley who‚ in his triple role of pianist‚ conductor and producer‚ offers yet another disc of aristocratic brilliance and distinction. In the words of Harold Schonberg‚ Moscheles may have ‘practised his piano and watched the world go by’‚ but his outward calm masked a fierce desire to excel‚ and I can easily imagine a wry look from Shelley at the mention of such geniality. ‘Try playing him‚’ you almost hear him exclaim‚ ‘and see whether you still think him genial!’ Certainly both the Second and Third Concertos bristle with enough savage jumps and hurdles to throw a less than first class performer; woe betide the pianist without flawless scales and arpeggios (often twisting into awkward and unpredictable patterns). Moscheles’ contemporaries‚ hungry for heart­stopping acrobatics‚ surely left the concert hall thrilled and gratified. But there are also many fascinating purely musical surprises. The Polonaise which ends the Second Concerto may be fashionable rather than proudly nationalistic but there is a startlingly dramatic turn at the close of the Third Concerto’s Adagio‚ a prophecy of the rhetorical recitatives at the heart of the Larghetto from Chopin’s F minor Concerto which followed three years later. Finally‚ and most engagingly‚ Moscheles was highly responsive to local colour‚ paying tribute to his adopted city of London in his Fourth Concerto by quoting the ‘March of the Grenadiers’ and‚ in his Anticipations of Scotland: A Grand Fantasia‚ to folk songs and dances north of the border. Who can resist the assurance of ‘Auld Robin Grey’ (though even he breaks out into a flash of virtuosity) or a strathspey sufficiently perky to set all true Scotsmen’s blood tingling. The recordings‚ made in Tasmania‚ are excellent‚ the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra enter into the spirit of things with verve and affection‚ and Nicholas Temperley’s scholarly essay is an added bonus. Curiosity concerning Lord Moira (1754­1826 – as in ‘Lord Moira’s Strathspey’) is certainly satisfied when we learn that he was a popular commander­in­chief in Scotland and later Governer­General of India. Hyperion’s immaculate presentation includes a photograph of the frontispiece for Anticipations of Scotland and there are several fine portraits of both Moscheles and Howard Shelley. What good news that more Moscheles is promised from this source.