It works when exactly the same information, bssid and psk, is provided via the configuration file to wpa_supplicant
instead of /etc/network/interfaces
:
/etc/network/interfaces:
iface wlan0 inet dhcp wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf:
network={ bssid=01:23:45:67:89:ab psk="MYPASSWORD" }
I also tested changing the ssid of the wireless router and keeping the psk unchanged, works well.