A charming listen. Chaminade is an unsung hero of her time, and this disc showcases just how colourful her music is. Mark Viner plays with panache, his renditions light and sensitive.

This new survey must count among the finest yet, showing the range and ambition of Chaminade in short works, played with an innate charm and understanding of the genre…Viner’s earlier single-composer recordings of Thalberg, Liszt and Alkan have earned him high praise…Someday, in the not too distant future, someone will sit up and take note of what an exceptional talent we have in our midst.

Viner’s energy and commitment to his cause are superbly invigorating. Pier rette, his curtain-raiser, could hardly be given with a greater sense of the composer’s feisty attraction, and in the 6 Études de concert Op 35, where Chaminade is every inch the virtuoso, he makes light of the opening number’s double note cascades and the final Tarentelle’s whirling gyrations. Excellently recorded, and with Viner’s enthusiastic notes as an added bonus, Volume 2 is eagerly awaited.

I loved this young British pianist’s exploration of the weird and wonderful world of Charles-Valentin Alkan last year, and he’s an equally persuasive and imaginative advocate for the music of Cécile Chaminade (1857-1944) here, fully alive to the charm and wit of miniatures like Pierrette and the Arabesque, without applying generic prettiness across the board – the echoes of Liszt in the Études de Concert resonate loud and clear.

Viner makes a wisely varied selection for this rare recital...All tell of a composer who has more substance than her reputation has sometimes suggested. Viner’s playing, impressively fleet-fingered and ripe-toned, does immaculate service.

[Viner] takes these romantic trifles seriously - they profit from it as well.