Writing intriguingly in this disc’s accompanying note, Jed Distler tells us of a phantom presence behind Rachmaninov’s performance of his Third Concerto. For him, Horowitz was ‘the only player in the world of this piece’ and he clearly feared comparison with his friend and compatriot. He also tells us that Horowitz looked askance at the Second Concerto, finding in it fewer opportunities for display. And so from legendary keyboard giants to Stewart Goodyear in both concertos. His exceptional vigour and impetus in the opening of the Second is a refreshing alternative to other more extreme views (very slow Lang Lang, very fast Stephen Hough). Rising above attention-seeking gestures, his directness and mastery would surely have won the composer’s approval, even prompting a smile to cross that famously dour countenance.

There is more shot-from-guns virtuosity, too, in the Third Concerto, which Goodyear plays without the notorious cuts. He also chooses the more opulent of the two cadenzas, following Van Cliburn’s unforgettable grandeur in his 1958 Tchaikovsky Competition triumph. At the same time there are moments when briskness does duty for a deeper sentiment and engagement. And, although exuberantly and admirably partnered by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra under Heiko Mathias Förster, he is in this sense limited when compared – cruel comparison – to the greatest recordings, to Horowitz, Gilels, Cliburn, Argerich and, of course, the composer himself.