The grandfather of cellist Steven, Julius Isserlis was born in Russia in 1888. He studied composition with Taneyev and Widor, but was primarily known as a concert pianist. He and his family left Russia after the WWI to settle in Vienna, and then fled that city when the Nazis came to power. They finally settled in Britain, where Isserlis died in 1968.

This disc mostly consists of short genre pieces, left in manuscript and edited by pianist Sam Haywood. Unlike other pianists who wrote music on the side, such as Schnabel and Weissenberg, his own music reflected his performing repertoire.

Brahms is an influence in two Ballades, and it is clear Isserlis knew his Chopin etudes from the Toccata in Fourths. A piece depicting the flight of a bumblebee is highly derivative of Rimsky Korsakov’s ubiquitous bee, but an octave higher – and less effective as a result. All the influences remain stubbornly of the 19th Century; formally, pieces tend to be in simple ternary form, and thematically they generally feature foursquare, slightly sad, minor key melodies. The nearest equivalent would be Nikolai Medtner, a composer whose music is superior in every way.

Haywood has the technique to make such pieces as...