When Maria Joo Pires announced her retirement from the concert stage in 2017, few were surprised. She had long confessed to an uneasy relationship with concert-giving, confiding in an interview in 2002: Recording is really the only thing I like to do for the public. Ive never liked playing on stage there are too many distractions. Fortunately, she changed her mind and returned to the stage, albeit very much on her own terms.

Last year, however, she sadly stepped away from performing, almost certainly indefinitely this time. Happily, her longstanding relationship with DG has yielded a trove of recordings centring round her main loves Mozart, Chopin, Schubert & Schumann. Theres Beethoven and Bach too. With this extensive edition, we can make peace that we can still enjoy her playing frequently described as magical, captivating and deeply poetic.