Eleonor Bindman’s Bach pianism is all about clarity and order. Her strong and assertive fingerwork complements her firmly centred rhythm. Although Bindman cites the late harpsichordist Igor Kipnis’s imaginative embellishments as a source of inspiration, her own stylish embellishments prove relatively conservative. Yet Bindman’s unquestionable seriousness of purpose often spills over into unyielding rigidity. As a result, the music’s dance origins and characterful variety fall by the wayside.

Many pianists, for example, conceive the G major Partita’s Corrente as brisk and playful, whereas Bindman’s heavy phrasing sucks the music’s charm dry. If you think Rosalyn Tureck’s détaché articulation in the E minor Partita’s concluding Gigue or her B flat Partita’s Menuets and A minor Scherzo lack humour, you haven’t reckoned with Bindman’s ponderous, emphatic touch. After Bindman’s laborious Toccata in the E minor Partita, I feared for her comparably expansive D major Ouverture. Here, however, a subtle momentum informs Bindman’s gravitas, while a rapt concentration always comes through in her spacious Sarabandes. One must also acknowledge the slow yet intimately unfolding conversational lightness in the G major Partita’s Allemande. Yet on the whole it’s hard to recommend Bindman’s earnest and largely joyless interpretations when Schiff (ECM, 12/09), Perahia (Sony, 7/08) and Hewitt (Hyperion, 6/97) remain easily available.