Here is a curious curate’s egg. The recording is based on the concert Boris Bloch gave on the occasion of the 125th anniversary of the death of Tchaikovsky on November 6, 2018, in the New Hall of the Folkwang University of Arts (Essen, Germany). I had been forewarned by our reviews editor that ‘there are tuning issues with the piano’. I’ll say. The first six and last two months of The Seasons are recordings from that live concert. So are the Romance, Op 5, ‘Natha-valse’ and Dumka. All suffer, particularly from the octave above middle C. The remaining items on the disc are studio recordings. Strangely, while this second instrument might have fewer tuning issues, it boasts a brittle, lemony tone with hammers that surely needed a technician’s gentle prodding. Fortissimos are not pleasant.

Yet there is something about Boris Bloch’s playing of these 20 short works that commands attention. His deep love of the composer is revealed in his booklet essay and in every note he plays: ‘When I listen to Tchaikovsky, the beauty, sincerity and simplicity of his melodies touch my soul like no other music. One loves them simply as one would love the dearest person in the world without questioning.’ This innate understanding of and empathy with Tchaikovsky’s world translate into performances that touchingly capture all its brooding melancholy, yearning, desolation (has ‘Dialogue’ from the Op 72 collection ever sounded so poignant?) – and, by contrast, its uninhibited, exuberant joy (try ‘February’ and the middle section of the Dumka).

Whether or not the interpretative pleasures of the disc trump its auditory shortcomings and encourage repeated listening remains, for this listener, a moot point. What is not in doubt is that Boris Bloch (b1951, Odessa), a great-grand-pupil of Paul Pabst, whose transcription of ‘Wiegenlied’ ends the recital, is a considerable musician.