A trembling patient asks: ‘Doctor, doctor, I feel so frazzled. How can I unwind and find calm?’ The doctor thinks for about two seconds. ‘You need a dose of Mompou.’ ‘What on earth is that?’ The answer comes in the latest album by Stephen Hough, the supreme British pianist who both thinks and feels, and also treats the curiosities of music with as much love as he does the mainstream.

For repertoire like this, a pianist with a delicate touch is essential, and Hough’s subtleties are never-ending. Through minute gradations of dynamics or the fragile sculpting of a phrase, the sparest and simplest of these pieces assume a rare beauty. Mompou borrowed the collection’s title from the writings of the Spanish mystic St John of the Cross, but the spiritual element in the music goes hand in hand with the medicinal. Do give it a listen. Doctor’s orders.