Angela Brownridge’s robust and colourful pianism will quickly quash anyone’s mental image of Chopin as weak and tubercular. However, like certain artists who think big, who favour bold primary colours over dainty pastels, Brownridge can be cavalier with details. All of the notes are there, to be sure, yet her handling of dynamics, accents and transitions is hit and miss. In the Second Sonata’s opening Allegro, for example, Brownridge never plays softly enough, while the second subject loses its individual character when executed in such a strict and unyielding fashion. A heavy touch permeates the Scherzo and there’s little sense of long line due to the Trio’s accented left-hand up-beats. By contrast, the Funeral March is beautifully sustained and shaped. The enigmatic finale’s two-handed unison writing unfolds in an uneventful, foursquare manner, abetted by a conservative tempo that ever so slightly slows down as it progresses.

The First Ballade betrays signs of impatience; notice, for instance, how Brownridge nearly always makes a tiny acceleration on the main motif’s final notes, and that she often builds climaxes before the climaxes actually occur. Still, her strongly independent left hand brings out linear movement other pianists ignore. She brings singing mobility to the Second Ballade’s chorale-like soft sections and a full-bodied approach to the agitato writing that never lapses into toneless banging. Some of the pianist’s dynamic inflections and her headlong momentum impart an unsettling, nervous edge to the Third Ballade’s graceful lilt. Her accelerations in the Fourth Ballade’s introduction anticipate the fidgety pacing, telegraphed crescendos and misjudged dynamic dosages up ahead, although the treacherous coda is rendered with powerful clarity.

Brownridge brings appropriate passion and fervency to the F minor Fantasy’s long stretches of virtuoso passagework, yet her quieter playing lacks the simplicity heard in her earlier recording of this work (Cameo Classics). Challenge Classics’ engineering reflects a realistic concert-hall ambience, and Gramophone’s Bryce Morrison provides vivid, informative annotations.