This is a rich and illuminating find. From the outset you sense Janina Fialkowska's innate, developmental grasp of drama - of the connection between phrases and their dynamic character. Then there's the sheer life in her playing, reflected in the perfectly nourished and shrewdly apportioned sound...her pacing and exceptional graps of musical narrative is a masterclass in the art of pianistic rhetoric.

you only have to listen to the Scherzo No 2 to realise she remains a supreme Chopin stylist, combining temperament with an unsentimental touch.

to an even greater extent than before, her performances blaze and challenge with a potent and highly individual sense of drama...For Fialkowska, Chopin can take on something of the dark-hued austerity of late Liszt...there is never any doubting her strength of purpose. All this is a striking advance on earlier recordings, with their earlier recordings, with their more conventional notion of interpretation, and to crown it all Fialkowska has been superbly recorded.