Gloria Cheng returns with this well planned recital of music from Witold Lutoslawski, his biographer Steven Stucky and his longtime advocate Esa-Pekka Salonen. All three have so far written relatively little for solo piano: indeed, Stucky’s two brief sets of pieces, attractive if stylistically anonymous, are distinctly minor works. The Salonen pieces cover the greater part of his composing – from the Boulezian clarity of Yta II (1985) to the Dutilleux-like poise of Three Preludes (2005); though it is only the Ligetian duality of Dichotomie (2000), the stark discontinuity of “Mécanisme” vividly complemented by the gradual accumulation of “Organisme”, that stands out as a notable addition to the contemporary repertoire.

Much the most important item here is Lutoslawski’s Piano Sonata (1934). His earliest surviving major work, it remained unpublished until after his death and is only now receiving its first recording. Perhaps Lutoslawski’s rapidly evolving idiom led him to doubt the authenticity of a piece influenced by Ravel and, to a lesser degree, Debussy and Fauré; yet the control of momentum in the opening Allegro and the understated eloquence of the Andante unfold with no mean formal mastery, and if the finale’s attempt at apotheosis is at all self-conscious, the winding-down of its coda is effortlessly achieved. Cheng dispatches it with sensitivity and insight (as she does this collection as a whole), and one can only echo Stucky as to the timeliness of this recording. Clear, well balanced sound and a disc that no one interested in modern piano music should pass over.