Prokofiev's Piano Sonatas Nos 6, 7 & 8 hardly lack for great recordings—their performance history includes accounts from such past titans as Sviatoslav Richter—but Steven Osborne has few rivals from any age in this most iconoclastic of composers. February's Record of the Month—celebrating Osborne's thirtieth album for Hyperion, no less—is guaranteed a very special place in the Prokofiev pantheon. It was in 1990 that the idea of The Romantic Piano Concerto was born and if proof were needed that the series is still in rude health thirty years later, it's amply provided by volume 80: Dupont & Benoit Piano Concertos. Howard Shelley, stalwart of RPCs past, present and future, performs his usual dual role, dispatching virtuoso solo parts with ease and conducting the Sinfonieorchester St Gallen in these attractive works dating from late nineteenth-century Belgium.

The latest in a line of eminent contributors to another Hyperion series, the distinguished soprano Julia Kleiter makes a welcome appearance on the label with volume 6 of The Complete Liszt Songs. As throughout, accompaniments (inadequate as that word may be in conveying the technical and musical demands required of the pianist) are provided by Julius Drake. And the Leonore Piano Trio continues to demonstrate an unerring talent for rescuing first-rate music which has fallen by the wayside. The abundance of Gallic charm offered by Litolff Piano Trios Nos 1 & 2 will have listeners wondering where these works have been for the last hundred and seventy years.