One doesn’t necessarily have to know the plots or subtexts attached to these ‘Tales from Russia’ to appreciate their musical essence. It helps, of course, to have a good narrator like Simon Trpčeski, whose keyboard prowess vividly communicates such stories without words.

In the first piece from Prokofiev’s Op 31, Trpčeski salaciously gooses the rolled chords to quite different effect than in Florian Noack’s relatively deadpan delivery (La Dolce Volta, 12/19). He also takes more time in the Andantino. Rather than letting No 3’s steady left-hand chords dominate, Trpčeski instead allows the melody to lead, while building No 4’s dotted rhythms to a riveting climax.

No question that Trpčeski’s incisive fingerwork, variety of articulation and cutting-edge dynamic contrasts throughout Konstantin Chernov’s Night on the Bare Mountain transcription generate far more excitement and drama than in Sa Chen’s earlier recording (Pentatone, 12/09). That said, I prefer the scintillating drive of Igor Khudolei’s leaner and lither piano version, of which both Sergei Kasprov and Valery Kuleshov have made wonderful recordings.

In many ways the musical substance of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Sheherazade is embedded within its brilliant orchestration. Yet somehow the late 19th-century Belgian composer Paul Gilson’s solo piano version manages to lose nothing in translation. The opening salvo’s rich, declamatory brass, for example, remerge in the form of intensely sculpted piano octaves, while the final movement’s relentlessly swirling woodwind passages lie and fly easily under Trpčeski’s supple hands. His pearly legato alluringly captures the silvery sound of the high-lying solo violin lines and the sheer sexiness of those long-breathed solo clarinet runs in ‘The Young Prince and the Princess’. Indeed, some listeners may find the composer’s own piano four-hands arrangement thick and clunky next to Gilson’s 10-fingered ingenuity and subtle command of keyboard geography. Surely Trpčeski makes a compelling case for Gilson’s transcription, with no small help from Onyx’s lifelike sound.