Here is Chopin with a difference, a three-disc set that will whet the appetite of even the most jaded scholar while at the same time filling him with apprehension. Chopin has, after all, proved magically resistant to change, to 'arrangements' that spirit him away for a single moment from his chosen instrument ('the piano is my solid ground, on that I stand the straightest'). Was Chopin's seal of approval for his chamber versions of the two piano concertos a matter of expediency rather than genuine artistic conviction? The question arises when a pianist as robust as Karol Radziwonowicz plays with an ample virtuosity that cries out for an equally red-blooded reply, for a full concert-sized orchestra rather than a mere string quintet. Indeed, Radziwonowicz presents Chopin as a restless emigre spirit clearly aware of 'Time's winged chariot hurrying near'. He can kick-start the graceful Mazurka opening of the Second Concerto's finale into life and is not above giving Chopin a smart clip round the ear when he considers him too languishing and effusive.
But elsewhere his brilliance is hardly in doubt. In the La ci darem la mano variations he recaptures the show-stopping bravura which first prompted Schumann's exclamation, 'Hats off, gentlemen, a genius!', and his playing flashes fire in the final cascades of the Introduction and Polonaise (transcribed here for solo piano by Czerny). His tributes to Godowsky and Michayowski (two more audacious arrangers) will delight all virtuoso-fanciers, whether in the former's darkly glittering left-hand arrangement of the E flat minor Etude, or in the latter's sequined double-note finery, and his performance of the cloudy, recondite C sharp minor Prelude, Op 45 (mercifully left intact) is straightforward but never prosaic. Elsewhere you will hear the rarely performed and hymnal Largo (first published in 1938 and arranged for string quintet by Tomasz Radziwonowicz) and a setting by Balakirev of the C sharp minor Etude, Op 25 No 7, as faithful as it is fascinating.
There is much else besides, and even when Radziwonowicz is more brusque than affectionate his authority is unswerving. The recordings are for the most part adequate, and so all Chopin lovers will need to hear this and argue into the small hours whether such arrangements are valid or misplaced, the fruits of wisdom or jealousy.'