Ingrid Fliter began her association with Linn with an impressive pairing of the two Chopin piano concertos. This disc of solo Chopin, built around the 24 Preludes, isn’t quite on the same level, though its best moments are still truly memorable. Fliter sets her stall out from the opening bars of the first, C major, prelude, where her generous pedalling gives the music real warmth and breadth that stays just on the right side of overindulgent. But in one or two later numbers she does stray over that line – her view of the B minor’s lento assai marking is just a bit too assai for my taste, and the A major prelude that follows it seems to put its sentimentality in quotation marks. Against that is a torrential account of the B flat minor prelude, as exciting as any I’ve ever heard, and a fiercely dramatic one of the F minor, both performances that get well rewarded for the risks they take. The disc is rounded off with a selection of mazurkas, the A minor Op 17 no 4 particularly touching, and a couple of nocturnes; Fliter fans certainly won’t be disappointed.
