Myung-Whun Chung is better known these days as a conductor. But he began his career as a pianist, winning joint second prize at the 1974 International Tchaikovsky Competition and forming a trio with his sisters. Now aged 61, he doesn’t consider himself a ‘real’ pianist any more but ‘the idea that my grandchildren would be able to hear this music from my heart was very appealing’ (his booklet-note).

The pieces he has chosen will be familiar to anyone who has studied the piano up to Grade 7 or 8. While there is nothing to tax more than a moderate technique, each piece demands refined musicianship to bring off convincingly. The first bars of ‘Clair de lune’, bathed in a haze of pedal, make it clear that forward momentum is not one of Chung’s chief concerns. Here and elsewhere his leisurely tempi frequently stretch the musical lines to breaking point (‘Träumerei’, C sharp minor Nocturne), while Schubert’s G flat Impromptu at 7'38" is likely to sound somnolent to those who grew up with Schnabel and Fisher (4'53" and 4'59" respectively). Yet Chung produces such a soothingly rich tone (beautifully recorded in La Fenice, Venice) and such long singing phrases that it is hard not to be entranced by the sincerity and tender introspection of this recital, a lullaby as much as a souvenir for his grandchildren, enlivened by the nimbly executed E flat Impromptu and Mozart Variations.