This is only the second CD ever devoted to Cipriani Potter, though he was a significant and distinguished figure during his lifetime (1792-1871), respected by Beethoven and praised by Wagner, no less. He was also, if the works here are anything to go by, a top-flight virtuoso.

These two (of his three extant and unpublished) piano concertos have been gathering dust in the archives of the Philharmonic Society in the British Library for over 180 years (they were composed respectively in 1832 and 1835). Do they merit the substantial time, cost and labour it has taken to let them see the light of day? At first, I was uncertain. But not now. On a first hearing, the thematic material seemed undistinguished, the internal structure of each movement unclear, and the piano-writing sounded like Mendelssohn on steroids. What impressed most immediately – and more than any other element – was Howard Shelley’s playing. Not for the first time, I was lost in admiration by his dazzling dispatch of the fantastically demanding writing in the outer movements of both concertos, the aural equivalent of someone mistakenly igniting a box of fireworks. Add to that his simultaneous and complete control of his fine Tasmanian players. I cannot think of another musician who is Shelley’s equal in this dual role.

With each subsequent hearing (I have listened to the disc five times now) my enjoyment has increased exponentially. There are some lovely lyrical ideas (the second subject of No 2’s first movement, for instance) and a string of others that are engagingly capricious. I am already rather fond of them. They certainly make fascinating and worthwhile additions to the Hyperion series.

As for the Rossini Variations (six of them, brief, hyperactive, composed in 1829 and based, so Jeremy Dibble tells us in his customarily exemplary booklet, on a theme from Mathilde di Shabran), they provide an entertaining 15 minutes of scintillating period fluff. The recording (engineer Veronika Vincze and producer Ben Connellan) is out of the top drawer. I’d like to hear a lot more of Cipriani Potter.