Portuguese pianist Maria João Pires’s life has recently had some dramatic upheavals. Heart surgery and a move away from her native Portugal (where she felt vilified) to Brazil, have given the pianist, now in her early 60s, cause for reflection. 

All of the music on this two-CD set was written during the last five years of Chopin’s life, when his health was failing, his relationship with novelist George Sand ended and he remained in exile from his beloved Poland. 

Pires describes Chopin’s music of this period as containing memories – that is, when a dance rhythm occurs, Chopin is not writing a dance but about the memory of a dance previously held. It is this nostalgic feeling that dominates these performances and the result is outstanding. 

In the hands of a lesser pianist the Sonata No. 3 can sound episodic and mechanical, particularly in the first movement which is crowded with new ideas and shifting harmonies. Pires’s wonderful phrasing allows the music to speak for itself and she has a seemingly intuitive understanding of the late composer’s wishes. 

Likewise, the Mazurkas and Valses are outstanding and the Nocturnes (surely the most nostalgic of this composer’s output) stand comparison with Claudio Arrau’s stunning 1978 recording. Only the Cello Sonata, in which she is joined by Pavel Gomziakov, fails to impress with its curiously underpowered performance.