This fourth instalment in the Naxos series of Rubinstein’s middle period Chopin recordings (after the two Piano Concertos on 8.111296, the Polonaises on 8.111346 and the Waltzes and Impromptus on 8.111365) presents recordings from the two extreme ends of the period. The Sonata and Preludes were recorded in 1946 and first issued on 78 rpm discs, while the remaining selections were recorded on tape in 1957 and 1958. When the recording of the Preludes, Rubinstein’s only commital of the work to disc, was issued in the UK in 1955, Gramophone declared: ‘As a whole, this masterly performance is the best we have had so far of Chopin’s great work’.