Some composers’ works (for example Haydn’s, Chopin’s and Liszt’s) sound well when heard in a non-stop 60-70 minute sequence, despite the composers never envisaging them being listened to in such a way. For me, Brahms’s solo piano music works best in recital when contrasted with pieces by others. This recital, lasting an exceptional 81'26", also includes one of Brahms’s least successful pieces, Variations on an Original Theme – though its uneven inspiration is leavened here by David Wilde’s magically whispered handling of one of its highlights, the gentle seventh variation.

Indeed, the most impressive aspect of this disc is the beautiful sound Wilde coaxes from his superbly voiced Steinway (recorded by Beth Baxter in the Reith Concert Hall, University of Edinburgh) with its pliant treble and richly resonant bass. The two Op 79 Rhapsodies open proceedings in dramatic fashion and with notably lucid textures, followed by Variations on an Original Theme. We then have the three autumnal Intermezzi played at achingly somnolent tempi (7'00", 6'03", 6'16" compared with, for instance, Kempff’s 5'01", 4'16", 5'01"), straying beyond the limits of what the musical line can withstand. Wilde, Bryce Morrison tells us in his accompanying notes, “sees the simple grace and lyricism favoured by many pianists as an evasion of a deeper poetic truth”, but in the Handel Variations the grace and lyricism of Solomon in the dolce and scherzando third variation, for example, are far more poetic than Wilde’s heavy-handed approach, one which admittedly pays dividends in the powerfully executed fugue.