The Chopin Variations inhabits the same pianistic and harmonic world as the Op 23 set of Preludes written at the same time (1903) and the Second Concerto completed two years earlier. Indeed, there are many passages that sound as though they are consciously referring to the Preludes and concerto, similarities that Ashkenazy evokes more keenly than most. At its heart is Var 16, surely one of Rachmaninov’s most inspired yet least known melodies, one that might well have furnished a concerto theme (Semprini once recorded an effective piano-and-orchestra arrangement of it as if to prove the point). Ashkenazy’s playing of this is quite bewitching, yet in Var 20 he shows that he can still scamper around the keyboard with the best of them. In fact he is consistently brisker throughout than Sudbin (BIS), Wild (Chesky, later Ivory Classics) and Berezovsky (Teldec – nla). Decca also usefully allots a separate track to each variation, unlike BIS and Chesky/Ivory.

The 25-year-old Berezovsky also paired the Chopin Variations with the D minor Sonata in his distinguished 1994 Teldec recording but his 74-year-old former compatriot wins on points, drawing together the diffuse elements of this sprawling work more cohesively, playing with more expressive depth and luxuriating in a burnished golden tone with a lovely cushioned bass. In all three movements, notably the central Lento, Ashkenazy is quicker by a fair margin than Berezovsky. This is his most successful disc for some time, a notable adjunct to the renowned Rachmaninov recordings of his youth for the same label.