There are at least three good reasons for investing in this fine recording. First, there is the prospect of hearing 10 of Paderewski’s best works for solo piano played on his own instrument (albeit not the one at which he would have composed any of them, for these date from 1885 to 1903 and the piano is a 1925 Hamburg Steinway Model D). It is in excellent voice, with a more mellow upper register than we are used to today but with the familiar resonant growling bass.

Second, there is the inclusion of Paderewski’s Op 15, officially titled Dans le desert: Tableau musical en forme d’une toccata, which I for one have never encountered before. It was written in 1887 and at 9'06" is over twice the length of any of the other eight short works here. While it must surely have been recorded before, I can find none currently available. It is highly virtuoso with most appealing ideas. Its neglect is puzzling.

Third, and most persuasively, there is the playing of Kevin Kenner, hardly a high-profile name despite his successes in both the 1990 Chopin and Tchaikovsky competitions (second and third prizes respectively). His approach to Paderewski’s music reveals long acquaintance and great affection, with beautifully judged rubato and a beguiling intimacy that illuminate in the best possible light all six Humoresques de concert, Op 14 (of which the once-ubiquitous Minuet in G is the first) and two from the seven Série de morceaux, Op 16; these, Melody (No 2) and Nocturne (No 4), are ravishingly played. Is the piano placed too distantly in the sound picture? Perhaps, but it allows the Steinway to truly sing and breathe.

The cherry on top is Kenner’s performance of the Sonata in E flat minor (1903), Paderewski’s greatest and most important work for solo piano. Here Kenner has serious competition from Jonathan Plowright, today’s leading champion of the composer, whose 2006 recording was rightly praised. I think Kenner trumps even Plowright, despite his omission of the first-movement repeat. The last movement, a scintillating and technically challenging toccata, is articulated with thrilling clarity and élan. Altogether this is a piano disc – let alone a Paderewski recital – to treasure.