Those who have had the misfortune to hear Maurizio Pollini in recital will know that for many years he has been a robot. Yet earlier in his career for DG he recorded, amongst a lot of duds, austere, but outstanding accounts of works by Chopin, Prokofiev, Schubert, Schumann, Stravinsky etc. Even earlier on EMI we have two Chopin recitals and this celebrated account of the First Concerto; where Kletzki and the Philharmonia are rhythmically crisp, incisive partners, who are also able to sing the first movement’s second subject and the Romanze. When Pollini enters you hear a young guy revelling in what he can do with a piano, who varies the tempo, springs the rhythms, his phrasing is elegantly refined, his touch like crushed velvet in the second subject. The Larghetto is measured with exquisitely limpid fingering; the concluding arabesques and runs a master-class in Chopin playing. Pollini is no hurry in the Rondo finale, but everything is imbued with the spirit of the dance, at this stage of his career you can actually hear him smile, while the casual brilliance of the coda makes you smile. Compared to a Warner Legendary SACD this DSD256 remastering has slightly more weight, space and presence. Where it does score is that the instrumental timbres are more like those on the first label LP it was also compared to, although the treble on both digital sources isn’t as sweet and the opaqueness of the orchestral sound remains, which was the recording engineers fault.
