Arthur Rubinstein (piano)

Beethoven: Sonata in cop 2 No 3; Ravel: Valses nobles et sentimentals; Chopin: Nocturne op 27 No 2; Ballade No 1 ***

The recordings offered here by that most beloved of 20th-century musicians, Arthur Rubinstein, were taped by the BBC in 1963, with a bonus (Chopin's Andante spianato et Grand Polonaise brillante) taken from a 1959 performance. Rubinstein was born early enough to have known Ravel personally, and to have programmed the composer's work when audiences were still resisting it. His approach to the stylised world of Ravel's Valses nobles et sentimentales is every bit as beguiling as his handling of the two works by Chopin. The Beethoven sonata is flexibly virtuosic. The transfer of Chopin's First Ballade, however, is disfigured by a pitch shift towards the end. url.ie/e6sy