The decorous noyses of ancient musick, NCEM’s usual fare, became a distant memory when Joanna MacGregor’s thunderous piano blew into town.

She was in boisterous mood for her Cross Border programme, opening with Bach and Chopin before flying to the Americas.

Part of MacGregor’s fun is unpredictability. So two preludes and fugues of Bach were leavened by three more from Shostakovich.

The latter fared better. Pedalling from stiletto heels may have helped to cloud the early Bach. Her laid-back approach better suited Shostakovich: the quirkiness of both composer and pianist coincided wonderfully in a wild D flat fugue.

With six Chopin mazurkas, dances wherein his Polish roots truly lie, she penetrated at once to their wistful core, even in the two major-key samples.

Here was nostalgia writ large, though she was inclined to diminish Chopin’s harmonic surprises by over-signposting them. The sighs in the A minor, Op 17 No 4, were succulent in their melancholy.

In her American Highways, MacGregor proved equally adept with jazz, whether boogie from Thelonius Monk or the Brubeck style of Earl King’s Big Chief (Professor Longhair’s calling-card). She also conjured dangerously swirling waters from Deep River.

As mazurka to Poland, so is tango to Argentina. Six of Piazzolla’s best were piano as percussion, dazzlingly rapid, staccato – and forceful in the extreme.

They ranged from the Bartok-inspired Tanguedia to the utterly contemporary Libertango, with inside strumming. A soft Pärt encore finally proved she could “do quiet”.