I read a somewhat dismissive review in the latest Gramophone (that's only the link to the mag – the review is paper only as far as I can discover) of this new CD of four piano sonatas by Joseph Wölfl, the once famous piano virtuoso and composer. His dates are 1773-1812, and since then he has pretty much only been remembered as a bit part player in the lives of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) and Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827). I couldn't, to illustrate the point, find any web page devoted to the man himself, rather than just occasional mentions of obscure and deleted CDs of his music. But then I came across this CD for £4 in one of my regular second hand CD haunts (maybe it was that Gramophone reviewer unloading it), and, since the pianist is one of my recent favourites, Jon Nakamatsu, I gave it a go.

And it is really very good. It's not Beethoven and it's not Mozart, and it wouldn't make sense to say that it is in between. More a case of inhabiting the polished and pleasingly decorated floor between those two stools. But it's good. The pieces are sometimes elegant, and sometimes more turbulent than elegant, in a manner I've not heard the exact like of before. Nakamatsu plays them a whole lot better, and made a whole lot more of them, than that Gramophone reviewer said, in my opinion. I especially enjoyed the last movement of Op. 33 no. 1.

And a little googling reveals that Anthony Holden of the Guardian also liked this CD a lot.

This kind of thing won't pay the rent for the entire classical music industry as it still now tries to operate, but it deserves a nod of praise nevertheless.