This collection is the first fruit of a recording contract with Decca Classics and Universal Music Australia’s Classics and Jazz division. The contract went to 23-year-old Russian pianist Arseny Tarasevich-Nikolaev, a prize winner in the 2016 Sydney Piano Competition, and grandson of the great Tatiana Nikolaeva for whom Shostakovich wrote his Preludes and Fugues Op. 87. Appropriately, the program is drawn from the works of 20th-century Russian pianist/composers, most notably Rachmaninov (Moments Musicaux) and Prokofiev (Visions Fugitives), but also short pieces by Medtner, Scriabin, and two attractive Concert Studies by Nikolaeva herself.

I am not surprised this young musician is going places. His playing has a beautifully contoured, polished...