Elizabeth Sombart has been a noted Chopin exponent for many years, but it is only now that she has felt ready to record the two piano concertos. Her approach has always been to try to understand and recreate the ambience of the composer’s time – to find the right conditions to reach into his world. Her partnership with conductor Pierre Vallet and the RPO has proved cruciall in this endeavour, and has now enriched the catalogue with two highly charged yet deeply sensitive interpretations of these favourite concertos. Sombart’s playing is superb: technically precise but possessing a flexibility and freedom that lets the music breathe. Vallet conducts with an innate understanding of the soloist’s intentions. Recommended.