Chopin indicates his Op 18 as a Grande valse brillante, yet Anna Fedorova’s fussy detailing and unsettled basic pulse make the music sound trivial and small-scale. Unsubtle ritards undermine the Op 27 No 1 Nocturne’s powerful climax, although Op 27 No 2 proves more expressively discreet. The Op 34 Waltz triumvirate follows. No 1 contains fetching nuances alongside crude tempo adjustments, such as Fedorova’s pressing ahead in the final pages, while the perpetual-motion ‘dog chasing its tail’ No 3 is rhythmically all over the place. But Fedorova gets out of her own way and plays the lyrical No 2 with admirable simplicity and sustained introspection. At first the pianist’s muted, soft-grained treatment of Op 42’s two-against-three main theme signifies trouble but the interpretation gains strength and profile as it unfolds.

The three Op 50 Mazurkas better absorb Fedorova’s willowy and rhapsodic tendencies, and I actually like the novelty of her ‘Minute’ Waltz’s exaggeratedly extended opening trill. In the C sharp minor Waltz (Op 64 No 2), Fedorova swan-dives into the outer sections, yet plays the major-key central episode more or less straight (Josef Hofmann’s 1923 recording does the exact opposite!). I like the idea of Fedorova’s brisk Op 64 No 3 more than her rhythmically unstable execution. The concluding Fantaisie-impromptu contains moments of breathtakingly clear articulation alongside blurred passages. In short, the title of this uneven release should have been ‘Misshaping Chopin’.