Ingrid Fliter - Scottish Chamber Orchestra - Chopin: Piano Concertos - The Guardian

Argentinian pianist Ingrid Fliter's first disc under her new contract with Linn is inevitably devoted to the composer with whom she has been most closely associated since winning the silver medal at the Warsaw Chopin competition 14 years ago. Fliter recorded two discs of solo Chopin for EMI, but these are her first recordings of the two concertos. Though theScottish Chamber Orchestra is a relatively small band - four desks of first violins, two double basses - there's nothing small-scale about Fliter's performances. This is very much Chopin playing in the great tradition: rich-toned, generous though never profligate with its rubato, and invested with a vast range of keyboard colour. It's all put together meticulously too - there's great subtlety in the way Fliter shapes the slow movements of both concertos - and in works in which the orchestra is the junior partner, Jun Märkl gets just the right mix of tact and individuality into the textures.