Alfred Brendel has written that, in contrast with a number of composers, Bartók’s scores are notated with the ‘utmost precision’. No doubt practical considerations influenced Bartók’s uncommon sensitivity towards the page. The ancient folksongs that permeated his mature creative imagination sounded, even to his Hungarian contemporaries, wildly exotic; their accurate transmission required painstaking care. Now, seven decades after his death, these meticulous scores, especially when consulted alongside Bartók’s own incomparable piano recordings, comprise an unusually rich resource for any musician intent on representing his music convincingly.

The French pianist Cédric Tiberghien shows himself a keen observer of Bartók’s intentions in this varied programme of works dating from 1912 up through to the composer’s departure for America in 1939. One of the most remarkable aspects of Tiberghien’s interpretations is that they are refreshingly free of those aggressive attacks that used to pass for ‘Bartók style’. He never overplays, yet there’s ample dynamic variety, scrupulous attention to articulation and plenty of rhythmic verve. Tiberghien combines intellectual objectivity with a strong sense of Bartók’s deeply rooted kinaesthetic impulse and essential earthiness.

Individual pieces within the Op 14 Suite, Out of Doors and the Three Burlesques are presented as integral elements of a cohesive whole. The same may be said of the sixth book of Mikrokosmos, played here in its entirety and with great finesse. Tiberghien creates a line that builds inexorably from the deliciously atmospheric early pieces up through Ostinato and March to the extrovert Dances in Bulgarian Rhythm.

Understandably, the least persuasive performance is of the 15 Hungarian Peasant Songs, which are direct transcriptions of folk material. In 1940, when Boosey & Hawkes took over the copyright of the set from Universal Edition, they omitted the flyleaf table which gave the tune, text and source of each song (I don’t know if this has been restored in the 2006 edition). For some approximation of the original prosody, non-Hungarian speakers were forced to seek out either Bartók’s original field recordings or the few excerpts he recorded on the piano. The original Hungarian flavours of this splendid suite are illustrated in the very different recordings of Bartók’s pupil Lili Kraus (Vanguard), and of Zoltán Kocsis (Decca, 5/00).

That said, Tiberghien is clearly a committed Bartók player, whose fresh ideas are remarkably consistent with the letter and spirit of the Hungarian master. I look forward to hearing more from him – perhaps even a First Piano Concerto?