Ingrid Fliter - Chopin Preludes (Linn Records)

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Well, I've been in touch with Linn Records who have been very helpful.  They forwarded my description of what I'm hearing -- much as I outlined in the original post -- to their producer and engineer for the recording.  He confirmed that the noise is present on the original recording, saying:

This is damper noise – the sound the piano makes when the dampers are released slowly and the damper felt makes light contact with the string before it damps completely.

You can hear it on many piano recordings and is essentially inherent in the instrument – it’s more of a problem in quieter music  (particularly when the Una Corda is being used as well) and it is particularly troublesome in some of the romantic repertoire such as Chopin, where the harmonic movement requires great clarity of pedalling (so that each chord sounds cleanly) but where piano and legato are paramount.

So there we are: mystery solved, and I'm relieved to discover that I wasn't kidding myself about this.

I must say I'm very impressed by how Linn Records handled this: they've been very quick to reply, and have taken my question seriously without giving me any run-around.  Getting a reply directly from the recording engineer was unexpected and feels like it's the authoritative answer.