Written for the composer himself to play on his many highly lucrative concert tours, the work of the 19th-century American Louis Moreau Gottschalk is, to be frank, slight. True, it has character, charm and extravagance in abundance, but it lacks the poetic poise of even the humblest Chopin and the musical and spiritual ambitions of Liszt. It’s certainly an entirely non-urgent candidate for the complete edition that Philip Martin seems to be essaying. The titles tell all: Deuxième Banjo, Hurrah Galop, Amour Chevaleresque, The Dying Swan. Music designed to impress the easily impressionable, it is nevertheless technically challenging to perform, and Martin is excellent throughout. Two stars