César Franck’s Prelude, Variations and Fugue, originally composed for organ and inspired by pieces by J.S. Bach, benefits from Cavaillé-Coll’s innovations, which allow the organ to develop virtuoso and colourful playing. Pianist Ivan Yanakov records it here on piano, alongside two other brilliant works: Joseph Haydn’s Sonata No 31, whose graceful ornamentation responds to the serene (and unusual) key of A flat major, and Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Variations on a Theme by Corelli. Rachmaninoff’s last work for solo piano, composed in France after a silence of almost 10 years, is based on the folia theme used by Corelli in his Op. 5, while paying tribute to the Romantic composers, first and foremost Liszt, with unbridled virtuosity and poignant melancholy.