Can 21 Nocturnes be a bit too much of a good thing in one go? Not if the composer is Chopin, undisputed king of the genre, and the pianist is Maria Joâo Pires. She's not exactly a prolific recording artist, but the results are invariably special. Not for her the namby-pamby, soft-focus approach that these pieces sometimes provoke. Chopin's approach to the form is by no means straightforwardly lyrical--take No. 4: it starts innocently enough, but in its middle section that mood is abruptly flung aside by a considerably more passionate section. To Pires, each is a song, a narrative urgently to be expounded (just try the famous No. 12--an entirely new experience in her hands, or the way she becomes the most expressive of sopranos in No. 20). Night casts strange shadows, shedding a different perspective on what seems so familiar by day. No one is more aware of that than Chopin. And no protagonist relishes the very innovative aspect of these pieces better than Pires. --Harriet Smith

CD 1:

1. In B Flat Minor, Op. 9 1: Larghetto - 5:36

2. In E Flat Major, Op. 9 2: Andante - 4:29

3. In B Major, Op. 9 3: Allegretto - 6:39

4. In F Major, Op. 15 1: Andante Cantabile - 4:21

5. In F Sharp Major, Op. 15 2: Larghetto - 3:27

6. In G Minor, Op. 15 3: Lento - 4:26

7. In C Sharp Minor, Op. 27 1: Larghetto - 5:11

8. In D Flat Major, Op. 27 2: Lento Sostenuto - 6:37

9. In B Major, Op 32 1: Andante Sostenuto - 4:54

10. In A Flat Major, Op. 32 2: Lento - 4:49

CD 2:

1. In G Minor, Op. 37 1: Andante Sostenuto - 5:47

2. In G Major, Op. 37 2: Andantino - 5:57

3. In C Minor, Op. 48 1: Lento - 6:45

4. In F Sharp Minor, Op. 48 2: Andantino - 7:18

5. In F Minor, Op. 55 1: Andante - 4:40

6. In E Flat Major, Op. 55 2: Lento Sostenuto - 4:52

7. In B Major, Op. 62 1: Andante - 6:27

8. In E Major, Op. 62 2: Lento - 5:58

9. In E Minor, Op. Post. 72 1: Andante - 4:08

10. In C Sharp Minor, Op. Post.: Lento Con Gran Espressione - 4:02

11. In C Minor, Op. Post. - 2:48