Having previously come across Anna Zassimova’s name only in connection with the Russian Georgy Catoire, whose works she has staunchly championed both in print and on disc, I assumed that an all Chopin programme would be a new departure for her. In fact, this is her third all-Chopin album, and her discography shows a balance between more obscure composers and the Romantic canon.

Unlike the previous Chopin recordings on Antes Edition – the first on an 1850 Érard and the second themed as ‘Late Works’ – there is no apparent guiding concept this time. The booklet calls it ‘an improvised musical journey’. Without following any chronology, the effectively balanced programme sets three medium-scale works against a selection of miniatures, all performed with the utmost care and personal attention. Of the three ‘pillars’, the Fourth Scherzo best suits her temperament in its capriciousness and episodic nature. Not that she is a match for the fiery panache of Ashkenazy (Decca), but there is plenty of inventiveness and fizz, plus a meticulous attention to Chopin’s polyphony, which indeed characterises her playing throughout.

In the Fourth Ballade Zassimova subtly highlights the dialogue of inner voices and carefully shapes each section of the piece. However, the detailed, omnipresent rubato comes at the expense of the broader architecture and drama. By contrast, Nelson Goerner on an 1848 Pleyel (Fryderyk Chopin Institute, 3/10) offers the perfect balance between poetry and storytelling. In the Second Ballade, too, Goerner’s flexibility is far more strategically applied, the contrast between the gently flowing opening and the shock wave of the eruptive second theme carrying far more conviction than Zassimova’s fussy rubatos.

Overall, and despite her sensitive pedalling and voicing, Zassimova’s Chopin feels more calculated than spontaneous, and anything but improvisatory. Right from the opening Mazurka, her spasmodic, stop-start rubato makes the peaks and troughs predictable: superficially similar to but in sensibility worlds apart from Rubinstein’s airiness and charm. Her approach works better in the volatile Op 41 Mazurkas. But her tentative, slow-motion A flat major Waltz sounds more suited to a learner than a fully fledged dancer (compare the fleet-fingered Lortie, for one – Chandos, 9/15).