The combination of Kolesnikov’s sensitive touch, a Yamaha CFX concert grand and Andrew Keener’s production values gives us beautiful sound in abundance. The longer pieces come off best…Kolesnikov is clearly a pianist and musician of exceptional talent. He really doesn’t need to force his own imprint on the music.

If these are carefully considered readings, they nevertheless exude an air of spontaneity. Judicious embellishments and the occasional interpolation are added, convincingly and with taste. Kolesnikov, always eager for the deep dive, here resurfaces with rare pearls of perfect proportion and lustre from the long-picked-over beds of Chopin interpretation.

What deep-dyed melancholy he finds in the A-flat major Waltz Op 61/1, and how he whirls the dancers across the ballroom floor in the posthumous A-flat Waltz! His First Impromptu is a rapid, delirious flight of fancy, while in the F minor Fantasy (his single large-scale offering) he has big guns to fire, making one long to hear him in the ballades, scherzos and sonatas. Kolesnikov’s Chopin is as magical as it is unforgettable.

Chopin playing does not get much better than this.

What makes this special? Partly it is his choice of repertoire...Above and beyond that, it’s the high poetry of his fingering, conjuring from his Yamaha CFX concert grand sounds of such deftness and clarity that my mouth kept dropping open.