Chiara Cipelli is a solidly stylish Poulenc player. Unlike certain interpreters who favour a lean sonority, she is not afraid to convey the music’s generous keyboard layout and harmonic surprises by giving the textures an almost Brahmsian weight.

Nocturne No 3, ‘Les cloches de Malines’, especially benefits from her timbral differentiation between registers. Likewise, she favours long-lined sweep over finger-orientated jeu perlé in the ‘Caprice italien’ from the Napoli suite. On the other hand, Nocturne No 5’s less-than-scintillating high-register figurations fall short of the composer’s misterioso directive. Cipelli understands the disarming simplicity typifying each piece in the Villageoises suite, even though there are crisper and brasher recordings to be had. Poulenc always encouraged pianists to pedal liberally, and Cipelli takes this to heart, though happily not to excess in the three Mouvements perpétuels.

Unfortunately, Cipelli is hampered by drab and insufficiently resonant engineering, along with a poorly regulated Steinway that does not hold its tuning and sounds like the kind of beat-up baby grand one hears in many late-’40s/early-’50s archival radio piano recordings. As such, it’s difficult to recommend this album, which is all the more reason for Sony/BMG to reissue Éric Le Sage’s superb complete Poulenc cycle.

This article originally appeared in the Spring 2024 issue of International Piano. Never miss an issue – subscribe today