Hélène Grimaud presents an intruiging mix of solo Bach, concerted Bach and transcribed Bach that partly achieves unity by the juxtaposition of works in the same key, such as a “D minor trilogy” containing the First Keyboard Concerto, Prelude and Fugue No 6 from the Well-Tempered Clavier Book 2 and the Bach/Busoni Chaconne. In the main, Grimaud is a vigorous, sometimes aggressive Bach player who understands and internalises the kind of rhythmic drive that made Glenn Gould tick, albeit without his sense of humour. She spins gorgeously contoured cantabiles in the A minor and E major Book 2 Preludes, yet rarely varies her hard tone in the latter’s corresponding fugue.

Her C minor Book 1 Fugue is about the stiffest and most disturbingly unmusical rendition I’ve heard by a world-class pianist. Conversely, the C sharp minor Book 1 Prelude and Fugue radiates nuance, linear dimension and a captivating organic flow that evokes Edwin Fischer and Samuel Feinberg at their most sublime. I only wish I could weld Grimaud’s spirited, characterful solo work in the Concerto onto either Perahia or Hewitt’s superior (and more naturally, less claustrophobically reproduced) orchestras, both of which demonstrate in the slow movement that discreet vibrato need not yield ugly, anaemic string tone in the name of authenticity.

While Grimaud imbues Busoni’s violin transcription with freewheeling momentum and organ-like sustaining power and resonance, she scales down Liszt’s organ transcription to more intimate, less gothic tonal dimensions, and quite convincingly so at that. However, one might wish for more flair and animation than her sober, crystal-clear performance of the “Bach-maninov” Prelude offers. On the basis of this release alone, I can’t predict how Grimaud’s next Bach project might sound, and I’m curious to find out.