CHOPIN: FOUR SCHERZOS; “POLONAISE-FANTAISIE.” Claudio Arrau, piano....

CHOPIN: FOUR SCHERZOS; “POLONAISE-FANTAISIE.” Claudio Arrau, piano. Philips 412 610-2 (compact disc). Whatever Arrau’s Chopin misses in urgency, agility or surface brilliance, it more than makes up in the veteran pianist’s magisterial approach and interpretive wisdom. The scherzos, suffused with gentle introspection, emerge as an octogenarian’s reconsideration of heady romantic excess; Opus 20, with its clipped opening section and soaring central episode, is typical of Arrau’s unconventionally poetic manner. The late “Polonaise-Fantaisie” receives a reading of extraordinary breadth and formal rigor. Philips contributes wonderfully sonorous CD recording, a model of its kind.