(5 out of 5 stars) There s an urban legend about Pollini, surely created by people who never heard him play, that he s cold , mechanical etc. Nothing can be more wrong. Pollini is a pianist that his utmost concern is to convey what the composer had in mind as faithfully as possible, and he s humble enough and capable enough to do so as much as it is humanly possible. The articulation and phrasing are subtle, in many cases, but they are there, and very much so. One doesn t have to be a professional musician to realize how much joy and deep understanding of the music there is in his recordings, right from the very early ones. e.g. the Chopin 1st piano concerto that he recorded at the age of 18 (!), right after winning first prize at the Chopin competition in Warsaw (to my humble opinion - the best recording of this work). The works on this CD present a wide range of Chopin s compositional style - from the wonderfully energetic and direct first scherzo, to the elusive and almost i