Cordelia Williams was winner of the keyboard final of the 2006 BBC Young Musician of the Year, a competition that, in pianistic terms, has been somewhat eclipsed by the previous one, in which the same category was won by an 11-year-old Benjamin Grosvenor. But Williams’s choice of repertoire for her first commercial recording clearly attests a certain self-assurance.

And that assurance is borne out at the keyboard. Her playing is unfailingly musical and thoughtful, technically polished and well phrased. But that’s not going to be enough in works as frequently recorded as Schubert’s Impromptus. In the face of competition that ranges from Dinu Lipatti, Edwin Fischer and Clifford Curzon to the greats of the modern day, the question remains, is there any reason to buy this disc?

Take D899 No 3: Williams is rather steadier than Lipatti, who creates a dolorously drooping line, while Pires turns it into a true Lied; or perhaps you prefer the utter inwardness of Lupu, the quiet eloquence of the rapt Uchida or the golden-toned Zimerman. Yes, I admit that I’m setting her against the big guns, but that comes with her repertoire choices. Williams sounds just a bit studied, a bit cautious by comparison. Similarly, to take just one other instance, in the second of D935, she can’t compare with Annie Fischer when it comes to the effortless spinning of a line. The Ländler are a nice addition but, again, they lack a certain insouciance, a certain easy elegance that you find in the finest performances.