Winner of the 1960 International Chopin Piano Competition—held in Warsaw, the city where Chopin himself lived his early years—Maurizio Pollini is a master interpreter of the Polish composer. The Italian pianist allows the music to speak for itself with performances that are refreshingly light on rubato. This album of miniatures composed towards the end of Chopin’s life is presented with little fuss or drama, but rather with the poised restraint that this exquisite, transcendent music so deserves.