The idea of contemporary composers writing works in direct response to masterpieces by composers from the past may be old hat, yet that hasn’t stopped pianists from instigating such projects. David Kaplan, for example, commissioned 15 composers to write short works to serve as ‘interruptions or interludes’ that would be interspersed among most of the encompassing Schumann Davidsbündlertänze.

At first I was prepared to write off this project as a gimmick, and to chide Kaplan for ruining the momentum characterising Schumann’s carefully constructed running order so as to suit his conceptual agenda. Yet it’s marvellous to report that the concept totally works. The old/new juxtapositions consistently fascinate. Schumann’s plaintive second-movement Innig easily dovetails into Augusta Read Thomas’s Morse Code Fantasy, where Schumann’s motifs are transformed into telegraphic dots and dashes. In turn, Schumann’s proclamatory No 3, Mit Humor, goes hand in hand with the broken octaves and hushed cluster chords that Martin Bresnick serves up in Bundists. Michael Brown interweaves measures from Schumann’s No 4, Ungeduldig, with music of his own pianistically idiomatic invention.

My friend and former neighbour Marcos Balter used to tell me that he dreaded writing for the piano, yet his contribution makes magical use of pedal effects and register deployment. Gabriel Kahane’s piece swings back and forth between echt Schumann and echt Kahane, followed by Timo Andres offering echt Schumann mixed with convincing faux Messiaen. I’m especially drawn to Michael James Gandolfi’s rapid passagework, although one quickly gets the point of Ted Hearne’s transforming the rhythms of Schumann’s opening piece into prepared-piano rejoinders. But the second of Samuel Carl Adams’s two contributions is a lovely, hauntingly lyrical tone poem in miniature that one ought to be able to perform by itself, out of context.

It’s obvious that Kaplan has devoted much time, care and consideration to honouring each composer’s wishes, including Schumann himself. Indeed, his mastery makes me wonder how he’d play the whole of Davidsbündlertänze straight and uninterrupted …