Here is Gramophone’s guide to the ten best ways to expand your Chopin collection:

No 1

Piano Concertos

Martha Argerich pf Montreal SO / Charles Dutoit

(Warner Classics)

‘Allure, brilliance and idiosyncrasy’

No 2

Cello Sonata

Raphael Wallfisch vc John Yorkpf

(Nimbus)

‘The expressive weight of each phrase is carefully considered’

No 3

Piano Sonatas

Janina Fialkowska pf

(ATMA Classique)

‘Lesser mortals may well weep with envy at such unfaltering authority’

No 4

Four Ballades

Murray Perahia pf

(Sony Classical) 

‘Every intricacy is resolved with a translucency that few could equal’

No 5

Etudes

Jan Lisiecki pf

(DG)

‘Lisiecki gives us tone-poems first and studies second’

No 6

Mazurkas

Vladimir Ashkenazy pf

(Decca)

‘Ashkenazy memorably catches their volatile character, and their essential sadness’

No 7

Nocturnes

Maria João Pires pf

(DG)

‘Among the most eloquent master-musicians of our time’

No 8

Polonaises

Arthur Rubinstein pf

(Naxos)

‘Rubinstein played the piano as a fish swims in water or a bird flies through the air’

No 9

Preludes

Ingrid Fliter pf

(Linn Records)

‘Fliter seems to be able to achieve individuality seemingly effortlessly’

No 10

Waltzes

Dinu Lipatti pf

(Warner Classics)

‘I doubt if the disc will ever find itself long absent from the catalogue’