Weinberg’s three volumes of Children’s Notebooks were composed in 1944/45, not long after he settled in Moscow, and in the middle of an astonishingly productive period for his chamber and instrumental music. In range of character and technical demands these 23 miniatures are scarcely less adult than Shostakovich’s Op 34 Preludes, which they occasionally recall both in detail and mood. But whatever reflections the title invites – and let’s remember that there were some strikingly advanced children around in the Soviet Union’s specialist music schools – Jascha Nemtsov’s scrupulously prepared and highly expressive accounts comfortably surpass those of Anatoli Sheludyakov, previously obtainable on Olympia. The Twenty Sketches by Sarah Nemtsov were composed in 2005, and their starting-points are Bartók and Kurtág rather than the Russian tradition. Though they hardly measure up to the forgivably hyperbolic estimations in her husband’s booklet essay, his playing certainly does justice to this talented and inventive set of pieces.

Shostakovich’s Aphorisms are no mean makeweight either. In fact, such are their intellectual and technical contortions that there have been very few satisfying recorded accounts. Of these Nemtsov’s is surely one of the best, even though his instinct is to smooth over some of the edges and to shy away from the 20-year-old composer’s invitations to outrageous histrionics.

All in all, then, this well recorded, admirably played recital could prove a valuable gap-filler for connoisseurs of Soviet piano music.