Jill Crossland opens with a generally sensitive account of Mozart’s D minor Fantasia, marred only by her impatient ploughing through the Presto sections. Mozart’s Ah vous dirai-je, maman Variations (with all repeats observed) feature pointed phrasing that helps convey the music’s humour, such as in the clipped treatment of the theme and Var 5’s witty interplay between the hands. Crossland gradually speeds up in the first bar of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, slightly adjusts her tempo as the introduction unfolds, and follows with a pronunced ritard before the main theme kicks in. The rest of the movement proceeds with relative simplicity. While Crossland’s clipped phrasing and astute voice-leading lend interest and profile to the Allegretto, she doesn’t observe the Presto’s dynamics accurately, and her articulation is all over the place.

She fares better in the Op 126 Bagatelles, particularly in the fast, skittish passages of Nos 2, 4 and 6. Her finger-orientated legato and agogic stresses cast No 1 in a Baroque-ish light, although No 3’s fuller-bodied pianism lacks Brendel’s more shapely delineation. However, the Bach-Busoni transcriptions disappoint. Crossland begins Wachet auf excellently yet fails to maintain consistent textural clarity once the middle-voice chorale tune enters, due in part to her brisk tempo. Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland grows too loud too soon, especially when the piano-writing gets thicker. Predictable ritards at cadence-ends and choppy phrasing cause Ich ruf zu dir to ramble and fall flat; it’s revealing how Lise de la Salle’s slower, more long-lined interpretation (Naïve, 8/05) actually sounds faster. In all, an uneven recital.