Chopin’s compositions are generally considered innovative in form, style and harmony. To a modern-listener however, they can sometimes lack originality and excitement. There’s nothing overly special about his piano concerti: they are pretty, nice, polite. The works are advanced considering Chopin’s 20 years of age, but there’s an evident reliance on the models of Mozart and Hummel. The liner notes are correct in describing a “youthful charm”, but the music doesn’t yearn for individualism and sophistication.

Nikolai Lugansky has previously filed recordings of both works, and this new CD only serves to reiterate the pianist’s musicianship. Lugansky and the Sinfonia Varsovia certainly fulfill Chopin’s expressive aesthetic and dramatic intention: at times delicate and then unexpectedly and boldly virtuosic.

While the focus is clearly upon the solo piano, it’s equally enjoyable to hear other instruments so clearly. The horns are triumphant in the background, the oboe calls across the strings, and the flute sings from the highest musical summit. Rather than approaching technical passages with the rigidity of an étude, Lugansky gives them the ebb and flow of a musical poem. The orchestra is also sympathetic to the mediation between Classical and Romantic periods – neither brash nor timid. In the hands of Lugansky, Chopin has found his own musical voice.