Vol 4 of Geoffrey Burleson’s Saint-Saëns complete piano works leads us dutifully through the dances and Souvenirs. And if the onetime claim that Saint-Saëns was a ‘French Mozart’ quickly dwindled into absurdity, there is still much to delight in, for example the Valses nonchalante and gaie. True, as Cortot tells us, Saint-Saëns’s greatest keyboard success came in his five piano concertos, but solo works such as the Etude en forme de valse and the Theme and Variations (I recall being rounded on by a classically minded jury colleague who caught me rejoicing at the latter’s deliciously camp finale) are virtuoso winners (available on Vols 1 and 2).

Both the quality and ethnicity of Chopin’s 58 Mazurkas frightened off Liszt, Fauré and Debussy, who composed one apiece, though there were more substantial offerings from Balakirev, Scriabin and Szymanowski. Saint-Saëns’s three examples do not add greatly to the genre and at 12'57" the Menuet et Valse outstays its welcome. Burleson’s performances are able and musicianly but you only have to hear Stephen Hough – who can charm the birds out of the trees – in the Valse nonchalante (Hyperion, 5/09) to meet a teasing wit and elegance beyond Burleson’s more limited scope. The Valse gaie is too restrained by half, making you long for greater brio and a touch of wizardry. Tributes to the Canary Islands, Lisbon, Italy and Egypt are examples of what was once cruelly described as ‘the insipid fruit of Saint-Saëns’s incessant travels’ (Edward Sackville-West).

Burleson’s notes are first-class, he has been well recorded and there is one more volume still to come.