Katia Bronska is a new name to me, though presumably she has been around for some time as in 1987 she won the Grand Prix of the Fondation de France. ‘Polish by birth, Parisian by adoption,’ says the booklet, adding that ‘she has captivated audiences around the world, meeting with triumph and success in great cities such as Paris, New York and London…In her concerts she has captivated listeners in raptures of emotion.’ If this isn’t a vanity recording, then it certainly reads like one.

In fact, Bronska’s playing frequently overcame such preconceptions. Intimately recorded, these are unmannered performances of laudable integrity. Does Papillons have quite enough rhythmic freedom, quite the same imagination and caprice as, say, Kempff (1967) or Hamelin (2002)? No. Does her scrupulously observed Kinderszenen charm like Cortot (1935)? No, but Bronska’s air of private reverie brings its own reward, despite what must claim to be the slowest ‘Träumerei’ on record: it has the rhythmic pulse of a musical box that needs winding up. This programme of technically unchallenging works concludes with Chopin’s lovely E flat major Nocturne, Op 55 No 2, which, clocking in at a barely sustainable 6'06", extends the total time of the disc to 47'53".

Katia Bronska is clearly an able pianist but with such strong competition in these oft-recorded pieces and without a major marketing campaign to promote her I can’t see how this release is going to make much of an impact.