Last year the Czech pianist Libor Novacek (b1979) won the first Landor Competition. First prize included a recording contract with the label. This is its first fruit. The programme is a bit bran-without-milk (hard to swallow) and the cover photographs, in chilly blues and greys, reflect Novacek’s predominantly ascetic choice of repertoire. Janácek’s piano music has never been, let us say, a personal favourite and the From the Street Sonata, inspired by the death of a young demonstrator during a riot in Brno, is not one to increase its appeal to me. Others may enjoy its episodic passages of despondency more than I and the composer himself: originally in three movements, Janácek burnt the final movement on the day of the premiere and threw the other two into the Vltava (a student, however, had already made copies of them . . .)

With Debussy and Ravel, Novacek shows his real mettle – and how pleasant that he does not feel obliged to play all the Preludes from Book 2, but only those that appeal to him. Beautifully phrased, subtly coloured and acutely characterised, Novacek’s playing of six of these is outstanding, capped by a triumphant performance of Feux d’artifice. Though his tempi are on the cautious side in Le tombeau Novacek revels in the music’s sec, veiled sonorities, infinitely better played and recorded (Potton Hall) than Samson François, with the motoric precision of the concluding Toccata more clearly articulated than Moiseiwitsch (though missing the cumulative excitement). Novacek concludes with three short, light-hearted dances by his compatriot Martinu, most notable for their frequent changes of tempo and time signature.