Includes Ballades, Scherzos, Sonatas, Waltzes, Nocturnes, Polonaises, Mazurkas, Preludes, Études, Impromptus, Concertos, and other works Idil Biret (piano)
Naxos 8.501501 (15 CDs for the price of 10)

In the realm of Romantic piano composers, Chopin enjoys unmatched staying power. The majority of his mature works have been repertoire staples from the time they were composed, and likely will remain so as long as pianists walk the earth.

Most of Chopin's output is concentrated within small forms, where his genius truly takes wing. His Polish inheritance is reflected in the heroic Polonaises and incredibly varied Mazurkas. The Waltzes, Nocturnes, and Impromptus reveal the influence of Bellini's bel canto melodic filigree along with the air of the Paris salons where Chopin held court. The more complex and personal works, however, embody a strong classical streak. These include the Ballades, the Fantasy, the Polonaise-Fantasie, the Second and Third Sonatas, the Scherzos, the Op. 28 Preludes, and the sublime Berceuse and Barcarolle. If the Etudes represent the New Testament of piano technique, the composer's youthful Rondos, Variations, and sundry occasional pieces reveal that Chopin's pianistic style was pretty much solidified from an early age.

Tackling Chopin en masse is a formidable challenge even for as voracious a pianist as Idil Biret, who busies herself with "tiny" projects like the Beethoven/Liszt Symphonies, Boulez Sonatas, and Brahms and Rachmaninov cycles. Recorded in the early 1990s, her complete Chopin cycle is bundled as a specially priced box set for the 150th anniversary of the composer's death. There's much to admire here. Biret's dynamically charged, gutsy playing exemplifies Schumann's analogy of Chopin's music to "cannons buried in flowers." Like her one-time teacher Alfred Cortot, Biret has a keen feeling for Chopin's polyphonic textures, abetted by her active and imaginative left hand. Her leisurely, exploratory approach to the Ballades, Scherzos, the Fantasy, and the late Nocturnes uncover details that often go unnoticed, yet also weaken the rhythmic fiber of the more lyrical, harmonically dense Mazurkas. On the other hand, the slower Etudes breeze by with freely singing cantabiles, and the musically slight but pianistically demanding early Poloniases and Rondos come off with idiomatic flair. Not so for the mature Polonaises, which are spongy and prosaic compared with Rubinstein's rhythmic spring and lilting authority.

The works for piano and orchestra, though, shine with unpressured inflection and more sympathetic conducting than usual. It's interesting to compare Biret's ruminative playing in the orchestral version of the Andante Spianato and Grande Polonaise with her leaner, more unbuttoned unaccompanied version. The Waltzes offer fascinating contrasts as well, from the pianist's melancholy, cello-like rising left hand line in the A minor (Op. 34, No. 2) to her bracing, poker-faced reading of the A-flatWaltz Op. 64, No. 3. It's hit and miss with the Preludes: some are sharply profiled and projected, while others seem less digested, as if they had been "gotten up" for the microphone. By the same token, few pianists take on the thankless First Sonata in public, yet Biret's strong and committed playing elevates the music beyond the ambitious student work it is. She also manages to make the curious, seldom played Allegro de Concert Op. 46 sound more important than usual, and makes as cogent a case for rarities like the Bolero, the Rondos, and various fragments and album leaves.

Naxos' engineering takes on a metallic hue at loud moments, yet is more consistent than the uneven, tubby sonics hampering much of Ashkenazy's competing cycle on Decca. The latter and Nikita Magaloff's complete Chopin for Philips (both omitting the concerted works) are packaged in space saving cardboard, as opposed to the these individual jewel boxes housed in a thin box. No single pianist can do equal justice to all of these works, yet Biret's stimulating and often masterly artistry is well worth the modest cost of 15 budget CDs for the price of 10.