Javier Perianes’ previous solo discs for Harmonia Mundi have a broad range, from the 18th-century piano sonatas of Blasco de Nebra to Manuel de Falla. This more mainstream collection of Mendelssohn centres on the Songs Without Words; there are 15 of them here, drawn from all of the major sets. Perianes lavishes all the care and attention on them that such miniatures need, without ever overdoing it and destroying their beguiling directness; his range of colour is perfectly judged, whether in the almost Chopinesque expressiveness of the Venetian Boat Song Op 30 No 6, or the darker-hued Andantes of Op 102. The sequence is broken by a beautifully airy account of the Rondo Capriccioso Op 14 and the first of the Preludes and Fugues from Mendelssohn’s Op 35, while sets of variations provide a frame: the relatively slight Andante con Variazoni Op 82 to open the disc, and a searching, yearning account of the Variations Sérieuses Op 54, perhaps the greatest of all Mendelssohn’s piano works, to end. It’s a lovely disc – a constant delight.