It is to Ivo Pogorelich's credit that he returned from a long layoff as bold as ever. No mellowing here! The present release is Pogorelich's first of Chopin's music in 20 years, and he has lost none of his edge since Martha Argerich walked out of the judging of the Chopin International Competition in 1980 in protest of his elimination at the hands of the other judges. In a way, this might be a good album to try for listeners who "don't like Pogorelich." Yes, he is iconoclastic as usual, with readings that run several minutes slower than most of the other pianists on the scene in these pieces, but the album consists of works from Chopin's last decades, and Pogorelich's general line of thought on these is unquestionably a valid one. Annotator Katharina Hirschmann refers to a "dark, broken quality" in Chopin's late music, and Pogorelich finds this throughout, not only in the two murky late Nocturnes but in a very melancholy and deliberate Fantasy in F minor, Op. 49, and in the Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor, Op. 58, with its nervous and rather despairing Scherzo. Everything is carefully done, and nothing wanders. A fine release from a pianist who is as distinctive as ever.