Here is a selection of performances from the various stages of the recent International Chopin Piano Competition played by the eventual winner, Canadian Bruce Liu.

His album opens with the final work he played in his round 2 recital, the Andante spianato and Grande Polonaise brillante. Had I been on the jury, I would have given him a straight 10 for both parts, if only for his constantly imaginative colouring and variety of touch. This is one of the finest performances of the solo version of this work that I can recall, and the final few pages of leggiero semiquaver triplets will have you on the edge of your seat.

The same is true of the ‘Là ci darem la mano’ Variations, which ended Liu’s third-round programme. It’s a brave choice for a high-profile, tense-making international competition, and to produce a performance of such assurance and musicality under these conditions, well, one wants to echo Schumann’s verdict on the work and say ‘Hats off, gentlemen!’ – and, if not ‘a genius’, then certainly ‘a great keyboard talent heading for a major career’. Liu’s structural grasp of the piece (helped by wisely omitting the redundant repeat bars in Var 5), the moments of high drama and poetry, to say nothing of the bravura passages (listen to Var 4, with its terrifying leaps here unerringly accurate and delivered with jaw-dropping velocity) are further elements that make this album so outstanding.

In between these two works, we have the four charmingly played, contrasted mazurkas of Op 33, a spectral, atmospheric account of the C sharp minor Nocturne (is it really a nocturne?), two Études (perhaps DG would have wanted to patch the antepenultimate bar of Op 10 No 4, but I’m glad they didn’t), a brilliant dispatch of the A flat major Waltz in which Liu comes perilously close to coming off the rails (but doesn’t) and a Fourth Scherzo, a performance from the first round, that ranks among the best I’ve ever heard.

In short, forget the Chopin Competition element of this release and listen to it simply as one of the most distinguished Chopin recitals of recent years, full of maturity, character and purpose. I hope the other pieces Bruce Liu played (Rondo à la mazur, Ballade No 4 and Sonata No 2 among them) will be made available at some point. It is not every artist – of whatever age and experience – who can deliver live performances of this stature without micro-managed editing in the studio.