It may come as a surprise that a composer as experienced as Paul Chihara (b1938) has not written more for the piano than the four works on this modestly filled album. Indeed, purists might aver that only two – the Bagatelles (Twice Seven Haiku) of 2010 and Four Reveries on Beethoven, heard here in its 2021 version – really count, being the only ones for solo piano. It would be churlish to omit the delightful four-hand suite Ami (2008), however, likewise the curious, uniquely structured Concerto-Fantasy (2020 21), the opening of which may at first fool the innocent-eared listener into thinking it a violin concerto.

Born in Seattle, Chihara is of Japanese heritage, though his interests range far and wide, from Beethoven – in the hugely entertaining Four Reveries, a rich mosaic of quotes and allusions – to ‘the tradition of Fauré and Debussy, with occasional nods to Ellington and Gershwin’ in Ami (there is a touch of Schumann, too, in the finale), to East Asian musical forms in the Concerto-Fantasy. This last was written for Vietnamese-born Quynh Nguyen, who performs this ‘personal tribute and musical portrait’ of her with considerable panache, relishing the many Vietnamese elements in the score as much as the more American ones. Expressively, the piece opens and closes in the light, but there are darker moments, particularly the martial scherzo, full of drums and sounds of conflict.

Nguyen is equally persuasive in the Bagatelles, which take Japanese folk material (note the subtitle, ‘Twice Seven Haiku’) in a manner suggested by Bartók and covering a wide variety of moods. Dedicatee Jerome Lowenthal recorded these for Bridge; enchanting accounts, but Nguyen’s are no less so. Nguyen shows throughout a consistent and innate understanding of Chihara’s eclectic piano-writing, relishing its textural delicacy as much as its energy and the webs of allusions that are a common feature of all the music. Nguyen’s touch – in every sense – is pitch perfect; her version, with Rieko Aizawa, of Ami is arguably finer than that of the Rogés, for whom it was written! Naxos’s clear yet intimate sound completes a terrific release, one that has grown on me with each playing.