Chopin Concertos For Piano

Chopin pieces enjoyed a prominent place in the early concerts of this French pianist-and when he began his recording career, Chopin once again dominated his attention. A longtime lover of jazz, Francois lent an almost improvisational quality to his interpretations; his performances, in particular, of the ballades and nocturnes are not quite like any other on record.

The Chongqing-born pianist Sa Chen first gained international recognition 12 years ago, delighting the audiences and judges of the Leeds Piano Competition with the delicate brilliance of her technique and her youth – at 16 years old, she was the youngest competitor that year. In the intervening years, having studied with Joan Havill at the Guildhall and won the 2005 Van Cliburn competition, she has recorded two discs, with JVC and Harmonia Mundi…

Decca’s first FFRR concerto recording available for the first time: Eileen Joyce / Tchaikovsky 2nd Piano Concerto – never released on 78rpm and long thought lost, the test pressings were recently found at the International Piano Archives in Maryland.

Chopin, Piano Concertos No. 1 and 2, performed by pianist Sa Chen and the Gulbenkian Orchestra Lisbon, Lawrence Foster, conductor (Pentatone Classics). Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra followers will remember Sa Chen from a year ago. In October 2007, she joined the orchestra for an unusual work, a piano concerto by Clara Schumann. Chen looks about 12 on her album cover here, but she's 29. She is a promising pianist.

Chopin: Complete music for piano & orchestra, etc. / Weissenberg
EMI Classics | October 02, 2007 | 3 CDs
EAC | ape | img + cue | logs | 698 MB

Weissenberg's Chopin is not for the faint hearted, but it does have its fans. No less a pianist than Glenn Gould commented parenthetically in an article in the May 1976 issue of High Fidelity that: “I always felt that I could live without the Chopin concertos and managed to until Alexis Weissenberg dusted the cobwebs from Mme. Sand’s salon and made those works a contemporary experience.” Gould brands Weissenberg's Chopin as a “unique example of the rite of re-creation”, alongside Barbara Streisand's Classical Barbara album. Take from that what you will. In any case, those jaded listeners who cannot bear talk of the warmth of Chopin's limpid beauty will probably enjoy Weissenberg's bracing bucket of ice immensely.
– Tim Perry, MusicWeb International

Chopin's two piano concertos have long been admired more as pianistic vehicles than as integrated works for piano and orchestra. But in his revelatory new recording, Krystian Zimerman suggests otherwise: The opening orchestral tuttis have so much more light, shade, orchestral color, and detail, you wonder if they've been rewritten. Every gesture, every instrumental solo is so specifically characterized that by the time the piano makes a dramatic entrance, the pieces have become operas without words.

Frédéric Chopin - Piano Concerto No. 2 / Grand Fantasia on Polish Airs / Grande Polonaise brilliante
Emanuel Ax / Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment – Sir Charles Mackerras
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 231 MB | Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Sony Classical # SK 63371 | Country/Year: Europe 1998
Genre: Classical | Style: Romantic, Piano

"…But if the concerto proves too rarefied, much sturdier fare is provided in the Fantasia on Polish Airs in A major, Op. 13, and the Andante spianato and grande polonaise, two concertante works that have moments of serene beauty similar to those in the Piano Concerto No. 2, but are balanced with bravura passages for both the pianist and orchestra. Sony's sound quality is pleasantly balanced and naturally resonant." ~allmusicguide

Frederic Chopin - Garrick Ohlsson - The Complete Works
Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra / Kazimierz Kord
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 3,68 GB | Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Hyperion # CDS44251/66 | Country/Year: UK 2008, 1990's
Genre: Classical | Style: Romantic

"This is an oustanding achievement, which any genuine Chopin lover and student of Romantic music should own … A landmark in the recording of Chopin's music … Garrick Ohlsson and Hyperion deserve the greatest success in bringing this important undertaking to such a consistently impressive conclusion" (International Record Review)