Evgenia Rubinova’s wide-ranging recital commences with the Op 12 Pieces, composed when Prokofiev was 15, their balletic charms already spiced with mischief-making. These are followed by the ultra-Russian Fourth Sonata (it was one of Richter’s specialities), with a dark speculation at its centre; for Rubinova ‘one of the best slow movements ever written’. The Sarcasms are an early and extreme example of Prokofiev’s savagely cultivated bad-boy image, a porcupine personality, all spines and quills, and a hard-hitting retort to past Russian romanticism exemplified by figures such as Glazunov and Arensky. Finally, there are the three pieces of Op 96 and the Sheherazade Fantasy, arranged by Rubinova.

Throughout her challenging programme the pianist plays with total empathy and assurance. Whether relishing the shock of the new in Sarcasms or, most of all, delighting in the teasing turns of direction in the Op 12 Pieces, her performances, freer than many other more severely metronomic offerings, is masterly. Hear her in the Mazurka, a playful distortion of a genre immortalised by Chopin; in the enchanting Capriccio, where Prokofiev spins one of his most delectable melodies through a maze of off-beat rhythm and harmony; or in the concluding Scherzo, a dream encore, if only for those, like Rubinova, able to command its wild whirl of events. The Sonata is no less successful, and if Op 96 and the Sheherazade Fantasy make for a refreshing change, they are surely over-extended. AVI’s sound is a model of clarity and refinement.