Minju Choi is a Korean-American pianist who has made a speciality of new American music in her recitals, so it is appropriate that for her debut solo disc she has recorded three new works, the oldest being Philip Lasser’s Sonata Les hiboux blancs (‘The White Owls’, 1996, rev 2001). Lasser (b1963) has commented that the White Owls ‘play an important role in the piece’ though declines to say what. The sonata-form opening movement, meditative central span and concluding toccata are terrifically well realised by Choi.

Gabriela Lena Frank (b1972) was born in California but is of mixed Peruvian, Chinese and Lithuanian Jewish origin and, as so often in her music, it is her Peruvian heritage that is evoked in her Sonata Andina No 1 (2000; a second dates from 2013). This is reflected not just in the movement titles – Allegro Aymara, Himno Inca, Adagio Illariy and Finale Saqsampillo – but in the evocations of Andean instruments, especially in Himno Inca with its percussive effects and handclaps, or the finale’s vivid resonances of Ginastera. It is the most characterful work in the programme and Choi plays it superbly.

Ching-chu Hu (b1969) also has Asian-American heritage – from China, rather than Korea – and reflects traditional aspects from his homeland in the mirror of his Western-acquired technique. Pulse (2015 – there is no connection to Cowell’s percussion quartet) was commissioned by Minju Choi and is a four-part paean to love, not entirely straightforward, as some of the movement titles reveal: ‘Anxious’, ‘Anticipation’, ‘Dream’ and ‘Adrenaline’. The emotional progression is nicely achieved, the suite’s idiom seeming as much a commentary on Western Classical love music as the thing itself. Nice.