Rubinstein’s Op 23 piano studies do not feature very much in recital programmes these days, though pianists with the virtuosity to handle it occasionally find a space for the second, in C major, a dazzlingly difficult exercise in staccato. Alexander Paley fires it off brilliantly, and he responds undauntedly and with quick feeling to the challenges of the others. They are studies in techniques, rather than virtuosity, and like those of Chopin or Schumann or Mendelssohn – echoes of whose voices are heard more often than Liszt’s – they explore the poetic ideas to be found in various aspects of keyboard practice. One of them deals with sweeping arpeggios, another with a warm melodic line over throbbing chords, a third with the old virtuoso’s trick, put into currency by Thalberg, of so-called three-handed technique, which used to confuse audiences when the thumbs played a central melody surrounded by treble and bass finger flourishes. The Barcarolles are also, in a sense, technical exercises, in that they vary the treatment of the old gondoliers’ rhythm with much charm. The G minor Barcarolle could well find a place as a surprise encore item. The longest of them, No 6 in C minor, lasts some 11 minutes, and rather outstays its welcome as Rubinstein’s steady flow of music seems to continue unabated while his attention wanders off elsewhere. The recording does not do Paley’s careful performances justice; it is a little dull for the sense of colour that is very much part of the music.

The two cello sonatas are excellently played by a duo with a strong and sensitive feeling for the music. Neither the amiable Allegretto of No 2 nor the Sicilienne-like central movement of No 1 pose many problems, and they are charmingly played. But there are problems a-plenty in the opening Allegro of both works, especially in making structural sense of music that can, yet again with the ever-fluent Rubinstein, risk escaping real creative control. The players are sympathetic to one another; the recording is also sympathetic to the considerable difficulties of balance which the elaborate piano part produces. Their ‘encore’ is a beguiling performance of that steady warhorse, the Melody in F, which comes up freshly and indeed melodiously. They should be effective in Rachmaninov’s sonata, though that is a highly competitive field as far as recordings are concerned.