Edna Stern’s recording of Chopin’s works reviewed by The Times!

The Times ★★★

Mercurial and meditative, Stern’s interpretations are distinctive enough. But it’s her piano that makes the big difference: an 1842 Pleyel, which clouds most of the notes in a velvety darkness, transforming textures and cutting out scintillating display. Odd? Perhaps. Yet this muffled sonority was what Chopin favoured. Stern, a pupil of Krystian Zimerman, works hard extracting magic from her difficult instrument, triumphing in the sombre Funeral March. The rest of the bill includes waltzes, ballades and preludes.

By Geoff Brown