Spohr’s symphonies – all recorded by Howard Shelley, incidentally, in his alter ego as conductor – Nonet, Octet and clarinet concertos have all been revived on disc in recent years. Few of even Spohr’s most ardent fans, however, would know that he wrote any piano music – just two works. His four-movement Piano Sonata (26'34"), composed in 1843, turns out to be a real charmer, especially the first movement, heavily indebted to Mendelssohn (the work’s dedicatee) and Weber. It is not, as Richard Wigmore notes in his booklet essay, a lost masterpiece but contains enough memorable ideas and unusual features to merit its revival, though I can’t say the same for the brief (4'08") Rondoletto that follows.

Nor am I convinced by the Piano Sonata (1807) of George Onslow, born within a few months of Spohr and, at this early stage in his career, without an individual voice. With the exception of the second-movement Minuet, the work is more notable for its suave craftsmanship than its musical inspiration and is on a par neither with his later piano quintets and quartets nor the Six Pièces from 1848. These Mendelssohnian miniatures (think Songs Without Words) inspire Shelley to some of his most imaginative playing, not least the final one in E major. He leaves the biggest surprise till last. Onslow’s Toccata was written in 1811, a full 25 years before Schumann’s Toccata, Op 7, in the same key. I leave it to you to judge whether Schumann should be accused of plagiarism or whether we are hearing one of the most striking examples of synchronicity in the piano’s literature. Hush, but I think I prefer Onslow’s.