Here is a Chopin recital to make you think again. Anne-Marie McDermott, whose records, notably of Bach and Prokofiev, have won the highest praise, now turns her intense and unwavering light on a very different and ever-elusive genius. Rarely has Chopin been so decidedly taken out of the salon and made to speak with such a dark, rich and full eloquence. How many pianists have opened the G minor Ballade with such grandeur and significance or sounded such a desolating note in the A minor Mazurka, Op 17 No 4? Even when you find the dancers heavy on their feet in the last two Op 64 Waltzes, you recall a delectably light-fingered spin through the first in D flat, and a startling demonstration of both musical and technical prowess in the Barcarolle. The emphasis in the Mazurkas is on their essential quiddity, their transformation of basic or rudimentary elements into an often interior and audacious magic. True, McDermott can bear down heavily on the B major Nocturne, Op 9 No 3, and her unremitting seriousness can become claustrophobic in the Berceuse. But overall such a dramatic reappraisal lifts Chopin far above more familiar glamorous and facile considerations. The Ballade, in particular, is superb.