You’d think that naming her new disc of Michael Nyman’s solo piano music after his short piece All Imperfect Things would be inviting critics to pick Sally Whitwell apart. But it’s clear from her previous releases that she proudly wears her personal quirks and imperfections on her sleeve as part of her musical make-up.

Literally, in the case of the cover art in question, with the normally punk-styled pianist decked out in foreboding Victorian gothic leather. The portrait suggests an affinity between Whitwell and Ada, the mute heroine of Jane Campion’s The Piano who gives voice to her fiery temperament and innermost desires only through her instrument. Does Sally do the same?

Of course, she opens with Ada’s suite of pieces from the best-selling soundtrack that has made Nyman a household name for amateur pianists for the past 20 years. And she does indeed knead some new shapes out of this well-known music. She plays first with lingering rubato and then wildly revs up for the compound rhythms of The Heart Asks Pleasure First – the spark that made her debut Philip Glass album Mad Rush such a success.

The floating folk melodies of Silver-Fingered Fling are contrasted with punchy staccato sections as spiky as her hair. She gets more sheer madcap fun – and some unexpected tenderness – out of Chasing Sheep is Best Left to Shepherds (The Draughtsman’s Contract) than any other piano interpretation I’ve heard.

The bright piano sound is well suited to those moments but becomes exposed and harsh in fast repetitive passages. The challenge with all of Nyman’s pulsing neo-Baroque music is to bring interest and variety, aside from its role as accompaniment to the films of Peter Greenaway and others. Strip it down and that you’re left with are block chords and sometimes artless melodies. And there are times Whitwell can’t avoid bashing these out, despite the emotional depth of her playing.