With recommended recordings by Rubinstein and Lipatti available it may seem remarkable that our first choice for the Waltzes is with the young Argentinian pianist, Ingrid Fliter. She plays twenty of them, including the two posthumously published works (in E flat and F sharp minor) marked by the composer Sostenuto and Mélancolique, respectively, plus another novelty in A minor that Chopin didn’t write. Moreover her playing combines dazzling virtuosity with tenderness, lyrical delicacy and moments of playfulness, with every nuance exquisitely shaped. The whole collection is a joy and the recording is excellent, truthful, if a little dry in the bass.
Dinu Lipatti’s classic mono performances of the Waltzes were recorded by Walter Legge in the rather dry acoustic of a Swiss Radio studio in Geneva towards the end of the pianist’s short life. In spite of the relative lack of bloom on the sound, they are very special and seem to have grown in wisdom and subtlety over the years.
