The live Queen Elizabeth Hall recital opens with quintessential Cherkassky. A more perfect rendition of Mendelssohn’s Andante and Rondo capriccioso you are unlikely ever to hear, deftly executed with a bewitching feather-light delicacy. That said, I have never been totally convinced by Cherkassky in heavyweight German repertoire. Here he plays Schubert’s late A major Sonata, a work he visited infrequently (he recorded it in 1960 for World Record Club LP T58). While it is the melody rather than the drama that attracts him, it is difficult not to fall under the beguiling spell of what you are hearing. Carnaval, too, for all its idiosyncratic moments, offers a masterclass in colouring and touch – who else can produce such a ravishing pianissimo or make an apparent crescendo and decrescendo on a single note? The final item of the recital, Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No 15, is omitted, though you can hear it on an all-Liszt collection (Decca, 1/95); the Rachmaninov transcription (Cherkassky at his most melancholy) is new to the pianist’s official discography.

First Hand’s classily presented two-disc set of the complete HMV stereo recordings made in 1956 and 1958 is a treasure chest of Cherkassky rarities. Of the 20 works here, all released for the first time in stereo, 12 have never previously appeared on CD, among them the five Chopin titles and the Bach-Busoni Chaconne. While he was generally at his best in front of an audience, these studio recordings have the same vitality and spontaneity as his live performances. The Litolff Scherzo is a delicious musical soufflé (better, I think, than the more familiar recording with Boult) while the Hungarian Rhapsody No 13 and the Faust Waltz (especially the stunning coda) are examples of pure pianistic joie de vivre. But above all – and this applies to both discs – are the sheer beauty of sound, individuality of conception and musical imagination that Cherkassky brings to whatever takes his fancy. Required listening for all students of the piano.