Bibliophiles who reside in cramped New York apartments might wish to take note of the circumstances surrounding the death of the composer Charles-Henri Valentin Morhange, known as Charles Alkan in the Paris salons frequented by Chopin and Liszt. It seems that he was reaching for a volume on an upper shelf one day when a large folio – some reports indicate it was his copy of the Talmud – dislodged, struck him in the temple, and killed him. Although Alkan’s music for piano is extremely inventive and lushly Romantic, his place in the musical necrology has, over time, become his primary claim to lasting fame.

The Australian pianist Piers Lane began his Sunday recital at Walter Reade Theater with a piece by this unlucky composer. “Quasi Faust” is actually the second of four sections of Alkan’s “Grand sonate: Les quatre ages.” It is a spun-together amalgam of three character sketches, describing Faust, Mephistopheles, and Marguerite. It is easy to see where Liszt got the idea for his own “Faust Symphony,” written six years later in 1854.

The piece is a notorious finger-breaker, and includes a fully fleshed-out fugue for eight voices. But Mr. Lane, fresh from his spectacular performance of Sir Arthur Bliss’s concerto with the American Symphony Orchestra on Friday evening, handled “Quasi Faust” with remarkable facility.He is especially adept at the tremulous Romantic figure reminiscent of pianism from the early days of the silent film, and of the undercurrents in Liszt’s transcriptions for piano of his son-in-law Richard Wagner’s more white-hot moments. Mr. Lane can play quite loudly and still maintain a high level of tastefulness.

Contrasting nicely with this bombast were two Nocturnes (Op. 27, Nos. 1 and 2) of Chopin. These were intoned with the most delicate of touches and the most unhurried of tempos. Mr. Lane only uses rubato sparingly, but his choices of moments for its employment turned out to be achingly beautiful.

Mr. Lane also offered “Ramble on the Love Duet From Strauss’s ‘Der Rosenkavalier,'” by the eccentric Aus tralian Percy Grainger. I love this music, but I realize it is decidedly an acquired taste.

The back story of this piece is a fascinating one. Grainger’s mother, Rose, had committed suicide after devoting her life to the adoration of her son.The combination of the plot of the Strauss opera, wherein an older woman has amorous feelings for a younger man, and the loveliness of the original melodies provided Grainger with especially evocative raw material. What could in other hands have sounded quite a bit like sentimental schlock appeared as legitimate music of the tearinducing variety, with Mr. Lane wielding an impressive combination of good taste and highly competent technique. Really very charming.

Finally, Mr. Lane presented the great “Carnaval” of Robert Schumann. This was the second performance of the piece this week in New York,as Chinese pianist Yundi Li traversed it earlier at Carnegie Hall. Mr. Lane’s rendition was everything that Mr. Li’s was not: sensitive, highly styled, intellectual, broadly paced, dramatic, musical. I was particularly struck by this pianist’s ability to emphasize the poignancy of the composer pouring his heart and soul into the score as he created character portraits of many of his friends who, as it turns out, were primarily imaginary.

Where Mr. Li made little distinction between the ebullient Florestan and the melancholic Eusebius, Mr. Lane gloried in their contrasting natures. His slower, contemplative sections were heartfelt but always limpid, his faster movements always exciting and technically impressive, but not too fast.

Mr. Lane emphasized in a ghostly sort of way the quotations from some of Schumann’s previous pieces for piano, in particular “Papillons,” as if they were part of the cerebrations of these individual characters. Since these personalities were indeed incubated and hatched in Schumann’s own mind, the spectral connection was highly affecting. The concluding “Marche des Davidsbuendler contre les Philistins” was suitably triumphant.This was very poetic music-making.

One modest proposal for the Lincoln Center management team: The Great Performers series is always sold out, and rightly so. Perhaps it is time to move it to the more spacious Alice Tully Hall.