In 2010 Yulianna Avdeeva became the first woman to win the Chopin Piano Competition in 45 years (following in the footsteps of Martha Argerich, who won in 1965), though she was not the winner anyone was expecting: Lukas Geniušas and Ingolf Wunder (the audience favourite) tied for second place; Daniil Trifonov came third. Since then she has struggled to capitalise on her achievement, issuing programmes on the Fryderyk Chopin Institute and Mirare labels, plus chamber music on ECM and DG, before moving to Pentatone last year. Her debut on the label, with an uncomfortably bleak programme, was entitled ‘Resilience’ (7/23). For her second outing, Avdeeva returns to Chopin with a collection of works composed in the last five years of his life which she calls ‘Voyage’.

Of the apparently infinite number of all-Chopin recitals the market can absorb each year, most are very good, few are truly memorable. Into the latter category, from the past five years I can place only three – all, as it happens, by past Chopin Competition winners: Rafał Blechacz, Seong-Jin Cho and, above all, the 2021 victor Bruce Liu and his superb recording from the same year. Avdeeva’s album falls into the ‘very good’ category. The early part of the disc I found more dutiful than inspired, with the two late Nocturnes somewhat over-pedalled, and most of the Polonaise-fantaisie covering the same subdued, introspective mood, similar tempos and narrow range of dynamics. The first movement of the Sonata, given with its da capo repeat, seemed to go on for a long time. When Avdeeva got to the slow movement, however, I sat up and took notice, for here was the same beautifully sustained singing tone I noted in her 2014 debut for Mirare (1/15). The finale, too, was noteworthy for its speed and clarity even if the left hand was occasionally given undue prominence over the skittering right. After this, the three late Mazurkas seemed an odd choice with which to end, a dying fall, perhaps to mirror the solitude and personal reverie of the opening 15 or so minutes.

The recording, well captured by engineers Monte Nickles and Jim Ruberto, was made in the remote Tippet Rise Art Center, set on a 12,500-acre working sheep and cattle ranch just north of Yellowstone National Park and in view of the Beartooth Mountains. The piano used is Steinway CD 18, one of the two pianos that Steinway kept in reserve for Horowitz in the late 1940s and ’50s, and later owned by Eugene Istomin.