‘The accompaniments for Chopin’s concertos are perfect’, a veteran pianist claimed in an interview, ‘but you have to have the right conductor.’ All too often the orchestral fabric hangs as an anonymous backdrop, as the soloist dominates the spotlight. Not so here. Ashkenazy takes Chopin’s orchestrations on faith rather than for granted. Abetted by the genial Czech Philharmonic, he takes pains to ensure that the strings don’t smother important brass lines in loud tuttis, and makes solo woodwind lines count for more than most conductors. Likewise, sustained chording is always singing and alive. Although Ashkenazy eschews slowing down for the second subject in the first movement expositions, he allows his soloist ample breathing room, shadowing her with radar-like clairvoyance. Indeed, few pianists receive accompaniments as pliable, supportive and chamber oriented as those Ashkenazy provides here.
On first hearing, Leonskaja’s lyrical disposition and unself-regarding attitude seems small-scale and matter-of-fact compared with Argerich’s volatile spirit and stylized superpianism. Further listening, however, reveals Leonskaja’s focused, treble-orientated sonority and fluid fingerwork to be increasingly phonogenic. Among modern recordings, Perahia imbues the right-hand filigree in both first movements with clearer melodic outlines. Argerich and Pogorelich, in turn, play up the climaxes of the F minor’s sublime slow movement with a riveting intensity far removed from Leonskaja’s nonchalant response to the menacing string tremolos bubbling below the surface. Leonskaja may not displace Argerich’s overwhelming, personalized poetry in my affections. Yet few other Chopin concerto couplings reveal as full a measure of these works as viable, expressive ensemble pieces. For that alone, this excellently engineered recording is worth more than a casual listen.'