‘Canada, Malaga, Rimini, Brindisi…’ No need to be embarrassed if that entertainingly tongue-twisting Geographical Fugue has, until now, been your only experience of the music of Ernst Toch. The Viennese pianist Anna Magdalena Kokits confesses to having discovered Toch via exactly the same route. Since then, she’s mastered his idiom, and this is an affectionate, eloquent and vividly played collection of his piano works from the First World War until his forced exile in 1933.

They’re very much products of the era of Neue Sachlichkeit, with Hindemith being the most obvious point of comparison until familiarity renders Toch’s own voice – with its wry humour and hints of Impressionism – audible. Toch was a master-miniaturist. Of the 48 separate movements recorded here, the longest is just 3'25". But the three-movement Sonata of 1928 incorporates a remarkably concentrated sonata-form argument as well as an atmospheric intermezzo and a playful, Haydnesque finish in barely seven minutes.

The tiny sketches of cats, geese and marketplace chatter in the engaging Echoes from a Small Town (1929) are practically musical haikus; none of the 10 Études for Beginners, Op 59, lasts longer than one minute either. After the Sonata, the three Burlesques, Op 31, are the most substantial pieces here, and Kokits – as she does throughout – nicely captures their contrast of brilliant foreground and overcast middle-distance, playing with just enough rhythmic flexibility to let the character of each miniature emerge.

It’s frustrating not to have English translations for Toch’s more detailed titles, and Kokits’s booklet notes are stronger on general biography than on specific works. Still, given that the composer never meant all these pieces to be heard together, this is a surprisingly listenable programme – especially in performances as fresh and perceptive as these.