We have a train thief to thank for Sergei Rachmaninov’s six Moments Musicaux, Op. 16 which conclude Scottish pianist Steven Osborne’s stunning new album on the Hyperion label.

The young composer was robbed of a considerable sum of money on a rail journey and needed some short marketable piano pieces to restore his cashflow. Drawing on Romantic models – Chopin’s etudes and nocturnes, Schumann and even Wagner – Rachmaninov stamped his individual voice and style on them, creating a highly attractive set and they act as an effective counterweight to his lengthy Piano Sonata No 1 in D Minor which opens this album.

Osborne’s previous recordings of the Russian’s works, which include the Preludes, Etudes-Tableaux and Piano Sonata No 2, have been favourably compared with those of Rachmaninov specialist Vladimir Ashkenazy and fans of the younger man’s use of colour, control and balance – wedded to a phenomenal technique – will not be disappointed by this new release. He brings a fierce focus to the sprawling sonata – Rachmaninov himself feared it...