Comparative listening to the meaty Sonata that Ireland wrote between 1918 and 1920 (the one work common to all three releases) finds both Rowlands and Bebbington allowing themselves rather greater breathing space than the more urgently propulsive Lenehan (who whips up quite a gale in the first movement’s development). Each is a mightily convincing proponent, though Rowlands’s interpretation carries particular authority: during the late 1950s he studied intensively with Ireland (the booklet contains a most engaging and fascinating personal reminiscence) and it was Rowlands whom the composer recommended to Richard Itter of Lyrita for its complete recorded edition (originally spread across five LPs).

With no editing facilities available, single takes were a necessity in sessions spanning January 1959 - March 1963 which took place in the music room of Itter’s Buckinghamshire home. Captured in perfectly acceptable mono sound, Rowlands’s memorably intimate performances betoken a very special empathy for this repertoire. Indeed, his playing throughout these three well filled CDs evinces a selfless dedication, recreative wonder and abundant poetic instinct that leave me in no doubt that this painstakingly prepared survey represents, at the very least, an essential supplement to Eric Parkin’s magisterial mid-’70s set (another unmissable three-CD Lyrita reissue).

As for the two new collections, Lenehan effortlessly maintains the favourable impression left by the first two instalments in his series (3/98, 10/99). With his pellucid, exquisitely variegated tonal palette, he makes a gorgeous thing of The Almond Trees, plumbs real depths in Spring will not wait and the central “Cypress” from Green Ways, and masterminds superbly involving accounts of the gale-tossed Equinox and mercurial Ballade of London Nights. What’s more, he has been accorded crystal-clear yet nicely atmospheric engineering.

For first-timers, however, Bebbington’s programme provides a pretty much ideal introduction, containing two of Ireland’s most popular and durable achievements, namely Decorations and London Pieces – both given with such winning aplomb, scrupulous care and heartwarming sense of new discovery that I found myself falling in love with them all over again (the vernally fresh “Chelsea Reach” positively beams with joy). Elsewhere, Bebbington displays wonderful control in the leaner-textured and economically argued Sonatina, just as he is acutely responsive to the fearful undertow of the Ballade (close cousin to the riveting Legend for piano and orchestra). Somm’s sound is clean and true. Roll on Vol 2!