Every new release from Krystian Zimerman is a special event, but this one is more so than most. After a recent series of concerto recordings, this is Zimerman’s first solo disc for five years, which, following previous discs of Bacewicz and Lutosławski, continues his exploration of music from his native Poland. Though this selection of Karol Szymanowski’s piano works omits one of the best known, the three “poems” of Métopes, as well as all three of his piano sonatas, it does include representative pieces from all phases of his development. The performance of Szymanowski’s other set of character pieces, Masques, dates back to 1994, but wasn’t released at the time; Zimerman recorded the rest of this disc in June this year, in Fukuyama, Japan.
