“A lot happens in my music,” Bacewicz is quoted as saying. “It’s aggressive and at the same time lyrical.” That, according to the booklet writer, “says all that needs to be said about her music”. A moot point. I came to this as a Bacewicz virgin, not knowing what to expect other than what one would anticipate from the composer’s dates (1909‑69) and nationality (Polish). Sure enough, her music is dissonant, involves complex tone colours, occasionally aleatory features and fearsome technical challenges. Yet all three works here fall back on Classical models, and while there are some gritty passages, I found myself drawn into the sound world with its nods to Prokofiev, Stravinsky, Bartók, Szymanowski and even Ravel.

All three works use the full sonority and dynamic range of the instruments, from the piano’s crunching bass clusters in the four-movement Piano Quintet No 1 (1952) and Second Piano Sonata (1953), to the plaintive fragmented string motifs of the Larghetto from the Second Piano Quintet (1965). The outer movements of the Sonata make huge demands on Zimerman. He has had the work in his repertoire since the early 1970s (he recorded it in 1977 – Olympia, 12/93) and makes a convincing case for it. Though Bacewicz is unlikely to become a composer of mass popular appeal, this is a fine tribute, vividly recorded.