Hyperion’s ‘The Romantic Piano Concerto’ celebrates is 58th issue with these concertos including a first recording of Pixis’s Concertino in E flat, Op 68. And here, surely, is the ultimate in chandelier music, perfectly geared towards what one eminent literary critic once called ‘the extant social world’. One can almost see aristocratic heads nodding and feet tapping as one virtuoso charm follows another. Of the two composers, Thalberg is the more opulent, with enough double notes, octaves and skips to remind us that he was once considered a rival pianist to Liszt (Liszt later dismissed such presumption with characteristic 19th-century invective: for him, Thalberg’s playing was as profound as the diamond studs he wore on his shirts). And if the material remains unmemorable, the treatment is coruscating in its tireless elaboration.

Pixis is a more modest voice, though with a second movement in his Concertino where something more original cautiously peeps out. But what is surely unarguable is that neither Pixis nor Thalberg could have rivalled Howard Shelley’s immaculate taste and dexterity. Time and again he makes it difficult to imagine another pianist with such nonchalant ease and elegance. Hyperion’s recording is beyond criticism and this is a disc very much for those who like music that is easy on the ear, enriched with lavish sparkle and acrobatics.