For Chopin the piano was ‘a soul mate’ to which his career was devoted – his two Piano Concerti are virtuoso pieces whose creativity had a significant impact on 19th-century music composition, radically altering the course of music history.

Reflecting the spirit of traditional folk dance from the composer’s native Poland (from where he was exiled for much of his creative life) there is a strong sense of longing in this music – a wistful aching of the heart – which continues to transcend boundaries today, be they of nations, cultures or experiences. Melancholic tenderness and dreamy ecstasy are combined with stormy moments of anguish. Critically acclaimed soloist Elizabeth Sombart’s recording, together with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Pierre Vallet, achieves the precarious balance of fleeting freedom and faultless precision that Chopin’s music requires.

The ephemeral music of Chopin has been a lifelong preoccupation for Sombart, not only as a performer, but as a pedagogue seeking to share classical music with the widest possible audience. In 1998 she created the Fondation Resonnance, a project now extending to seven countries offering extensive classical music outreach programmes and piano schools open to all where the focus is to forget one’s self, to serve and offer music to others instead.