Kathryn Selby, an Australian-born pianist whose technical facility is well above average, gave a satisfying recital Sunday afternoon at the 92d Street Y. The distinguishing characteristic of her work in Mendelssohn, Schubert, Corigliano, Debussy, Chopin and Liszt was a security of finger control that allowed her to use the pedal very sparingly and to keep firm control over musical shape in fast movements at tempos that could easily have spilled over into skittering haste.
Sometimes Miss Selby rather seemed to pounce on a piece as if to take it by surprise - in the last of Schubert's Impromptus (Op. 142) and Debussy's ''Isle Joyeuse,'' for instance. The former featured splendid unison scales taken very evenly at a soft dynamic, the latter an almost brittle or clattery burst of cheerful fireworks. In Chopin's G minor Ballade there was a rocky patch toward the end, but even there one saluted a technique that compassed the notes comfortably enough to make music out of them.
The music Miss Selby made was most persuasive in Mendelssohn's ''Variations Serieuses'' and in the livelier parts of the Schubert. In lyrical movements she was not inexpressive, but she inclined to a certain stiffness of phrasing; one was very conscious of barlines. Her challenge for the future, to judge by this showing, lies in letting the music relax and sing a little; she already knows how to make it dance.