For William Blake, exuberance rather than prudence equalled beauty and there is certainly nothing prudent about David Rakowski (b1958) and his Etudes. Expertly performed by Amy Dissanayake, an intrepid pianist, this disc consists of 22 Etudes selected from a cycle-in-progress of 50 (48 down and two to go), written largely as a diversion from larger projects.

The booklet notes, which quote extensively from the composer, give you a random sense of what to expect. For Rakowski the idea was ‘to play games with the way notes get put together,’ and he certainly is a great lover of games. This one must be played ‘too fast’, another ‘like a bat out of hell’. The climax of No 16 is a ‘gonzoboogie-woogie from hell’ composed by candlelight during a Maine ice-storm. No 18 is inspired by a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox baseball team, while No 11 is an Etude for the index fingers only (‘pianists who wish to use more fingers may do so at their own discretion, but should be very, very ashamed’). No 36 remembers Jimi Hendrix and his Purple Haze, No 13 has you playing inside as well as outside the piano, while No 22, ‘Schnozzage’, is written for nose as well as fingers.

Throughout, one form of inspiration is easily substituted for another (‘little puffs of smoke’ become ‘musical fireflies’ in No 35). Less engagingly, such facetiousness seems a far cry from wit, a quality the notes compare favourably with Haydn – ‘as with Haydn, the mind never stops’. There is also an unfortunate reference to Rakowski’s continuation of the tradition of great Etude writing, from Chopin to Ligeti. Such claims are far-fetched and although there are some relatively attractive exceptions (Nos 14, 23, 26 and 29), few of these works achieve anything approaching the genuine order and complexity of the two composers named above.

The recordings are acceptable rather than outstanding and Dissanayake, a former student of Ursula Oppens, is clearly more than at home in Rakowski’s welter of demands.