In a way, Stella Almondo’s debut release falls into two parts. The first part brackets an intelligently varied Rachmaninov group between an étude and selected preludes of Felix Blumenfeld. The second part presents two Scriabin sonatas, each one prefaced by a Scriabin étude. No doubt that much thought and care went into determining the playlist, yet its stylistic progression from start to finish has an assiduous and organic trajectory.

Almondo plays the opening Blumenfeld F sharp minor Étude with more suppleness than I’ve heard in other recordings, even if she telegraphs certain ritards. Rachmaninov’s E minor Moment musical’s incisively swirling accompaniment impresses, while her hurling, impetuous E flat minor Étude-tableau evokes the ardency of Sergei Babayan’s recent recording (DG, 9/20), if not its arching line. Almondo floats the ‘Élégie’ (Op 3 No 1) beautifully, but her slowly unfolding D major Op 23 Prelude meanders. Bold paragraphic gestures in the B flat Prelude are undermined by occasionally lackadaisical articulation; compare Almondo’s sweeping left-hand arpeggios to those of Richter, Gavrilov or, more recently, Claire Huangci (Berlin Classics) and you’ll hear what I mean. Conversely, her shapely handling of Volodos’s solo piano version of the Cello Sonata’s slow movement yields little to the transcriber’s own magical recording (Sony, A/00), and that’s no small feat.

In four selections from Blumenfeld’s 24 Preludes, Op 17, Almondo’s luscious shaping of No 19’s principal cantabile and inner voices (unabashedly pilfered from Wagner’s Liebestod!) and deft fingerwork throughout No 20 make me want to hear her play the entire set.

As a Scriabin interpreter, Almondo’s instincts are right on track, although she’s still a work-in-progress when it comes to the fine print of small yet important details. She understands the F sharp minor Étude’s volatile game plan but undermines the dynamic contrasts and sometimes rushes the right-hand runs. The relationship between the perpetual-motion right hand and the left-hand bass lines in the Second Sonata’s scurrying second movement loses focus when Almondo attempts expressive tempo modifications. Twitchy and purposeless accelerations in the D sharp minor Étude’s lesser-known second version sound even more mannered and nervous in the Fourth Sonata’s second movement, which should build from nothing and gush at the climaxes. A pity, because the hushed delicacy and grippingly atmospheric first movement holds much promise. So do this 17-year-old pianist’s gifts.