The first thing that strikes you is the mellowness of the piano.

Pavel Kolesnikov, the young Russian pianist championed by Maria João Pires, cultivates a warmly expressive sound, which is the foundation of his playing.

This selection of 24 of Chopin’s Mazurkas keeps that warmth at its heart, but reaches out to tenderness, fantasy and more, with enough spring in the more lively pieces to keep a connection to the form’s original dance origins.

At his best, as in the pensive A Minor, Op 17 No 4, Kolesnikov probes inner feelings and gives us a Chopin very much his own.