I've been listening very closely, (one doesn't have a choice, but more on that later), to the new DG recording of the Chopin Piano Concertos with Krystian Zimerman and his hand-picked Polish Festival Orchestra. (DG457585) As much as I am a fan of Zimerman, (the Chopin Ballades, Liszt's Sonata, the Debussy Preludes), I can't say that I'm sold on his new recording of these concertos. Zimerman both plays and directs, and I found myself (at first) captivated by the unusually earnest handling of the orchestral accompaniment: any tidbit of color, delicious suspension, or moment of counterpoint that Zimerman can find is delivered freshly-minted and boldly underlined. But.... Much like some of Sinopoli's interesting yet ultimately frustrating re-assessments of the orchestral literature, Zimerman digs so deep that, oh wait! -imho- anyway, Zimerman digs so deep that one ends up no longer able to see the daylight. Take the orchestral introduction to the Larghetto of the 2nd concerto as an example of what I mean: it's so weighted down with an almost Brucknerian(!) profundity that it ceases to be an anticipatory gesture and becomes just another episode in a series of fascinating but ultimately disjunct musical episodes. Zimerman's uncharacteristic fussiness spills over into his piano playing as well. Grace notes are lingered over to point where one cannot tell the grace note from the actual note.This rhythmic distortion is most notable in the Larghetto from the 2nd concerto and the extended lyrical sections in the Allegro Maestoso of the 1st. The sound: If the orchestral accompaniment wasn't uniquely imposing, passionate, and dynamically-contrasted enough as a result of Zimerman's overall conceptual dusting-off of these concerti, well, the close-up recording heightens the effect--and I for one was left feeling more claustrophobic than invigorated. I pity the yuppie that buys this CD to set an intimate, benign mood! But perhaps, that's what Zimerman and Co. have intended. John Smyth