Pavel Gomziakov (cello), Maria João Pires (piano) Deutsche Grammophon 477 7483(2 CDs) ****

Maria João Pires here brings together the bulk of Chopin’s music from 1845 to the year of his death, 1849. Musically, hers is a voice of measured wisdom, and her playing is not the kind to yield all its secrets at once. Her handling of the Sonata in B minor, the Polonaise-Fantaisie and the Cello Sonata (with Pavel Gomziakov) repay repeated listening. She praises Gomziakov for “a dignity of style and a certain austerity in his tone that are perfectly suited to this music”, terms that apply equally well to her. She plays the final Mazurka (Op 68 No 4) as if it’s reaching out, a little apprehensively, towards the unknown. The other shorter pieces (waltzes and mazurkas) sound unnecessarily circumspect. www.tinyurl.com/5b9s4r