The unwary might assume that Hilary Demske’s latest album is a transcription or reworking of Schubert’s great song-cycle, omitting the singer. The mellifluous flow of the opening ‘Gute Nacht’ might endorse the misconception, were it not for the resonant opening chord, retextured by laying a timpani mallet on the strings. ‘Die Wetterfahne’ departs still further, adding aluminium foil to the mallet; this, then, is not so much a recomposition of Schubert but manifestly new music for partly prepared piano, based as much on Wilhelm Müller’s poems as Schubert’s settings.

Demske (b1980) refers to Journey for One (2009 14) as ‘a work that has clear origins with Schubert’s Winterreise, but is more of a refraction than a reflection. It represents my individual journey and experience with the music.’ Winterreise becomes a reservoir of motifs from which she weaves a series of 24 fantasias, with varying degrees of closeness to the original (‘Erstarrung’) or complete departure from it – as in the uproarious jazz riffs of ‘Der Lindenbaum’ and ‘Mut’, abetted by percussive preparations. But listen out for castanets in ‘Rückblick’, woodblock in ‘Die Post’ and bells in ‘Das Wirtshaus’. The pianist in places plays directly on the strings, too, as in ‘Auf dem Flusse’. In ‘Einsamkeit’, Demske almost turns the instrument into a giant zither. Schubert was never like this!

While it is quite fun to listen to Demske’s fantasias alongside the originals (one wonders what, for example, Fischer-Dieskau and Gerald Moore – whose recording remains a pinnacle of Schubert interpretation – would have made of it), Demske’s music has to stand on its own. That it does, so successfully, whether in the charmingly Lisztian ‘Wasserflut’ or the vivid prepared tempest of ‘Der stürmische Morgen’, is down to Demske’s barnstorming performance, blending classical pianism, contemporary music and jazz. It all comes together in a vibrant performance, vividly recorded at the Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto six years ago.