The match-up of a (if not the) leading Polish pianist with a (if not the) leading 20th-century Polish composer is so obvious that it may come as a surprise that it has not happened before. In fact it has, because Zimerman made his recording of Masques – arguably Szymanowski’s most striking piano work – back in 1994. But it has taken until now for him to find complementary repertoire that would, as he puts it, show ‘the essence’ of the composer.

The Op 1 Preludes are an obvious starting point, the selection of four out of 10 effectively illustrating the roots of the teenage composer’s musical language in Chopin and Scriabin. Zimerman’s lovingly shaped accounts might be thought on the hesitant, even soporific side of the Andante and Moderato markings, but if nothing else they serve to bring out the embryonic sultry, fluttering moods for which Szymanowski would soon find his own unique voice.

With the Masques of 1915, Szymanowski had moved on to – and past – the styles of Debussy and Ravel, blending them at times with Stravinsky and early Prokofiev. Structure is all but dissolved here into colour and darting, mercurial gesture. Zimerman has all the quick-wittedness and nimbleness called for, not to mention power and agility. He thus joins the likes of Anderszewski and Richter (who I think only recorded the second and third of the three pieces) at the pinnacle of exponents, leaving the merely excellent Tiberghien sounding a little pale.

Fifteen years on, in the Op 50 Mazurkas, the frenzy has cooled somewhat, to be replaced by etiolated (finally I get to use that word!) lyricism and a few shades of Bartók, who by that time had taken cognisance of what Szymanowski was doing. Much here hangs on the ability to make pianos and pianissimos, tenutos, semi-staccatos and accents speak with eloquence and seductive grace. Hamelin has that quality to the max, but if absolutely pushed I would award the palm, by a fraction, to Zimerman.

Placed last on the programme, the Op 10 Variations on a Polish Folk Theme takes us back to the composer’s student days, 11 or 12 years before Masques. Intrinsically it may be the least interesting of the pieces on the disc, since it is unashamedly written for effect and excess, some of it tongue-in-cheek (as markings such as poco buffo tell us). Yet it undoubtedly reminds us of the remarkable distance Szymanowski travelled between the Variations and Masques. Zimerman lavishes as much fantasy, expressive freedom and subtlety on it as on the rest of programme, doing a superb job in decluttering the textures, helped by predictably first-rate recording quality. Does Zimerman have more Szymanowski planned? We can only hope.