Chopin: 傅聪 Fou Ts'ong

Maurizio Pollini, "the pre-eminent Chopinist of his generation" (Fanfare), continues his revelatory and chronological re-exploration of the Polish master's late works. This album contains the pianist's latest thoughts on Opp. 55-58 (1843/4), including the B minor Sonata and Berceuse.

This is one of those few "absolutely perfect" works of art or nature one comes across in one's liftime. It's like Michelangelo's "David" or the best moonrise you've ever seen over a desert mountain. It's shocking, it's so good. It will leave you overwhelmed. I've never heard any other recording of Chopin come anywhere close to being as magic as this. Anyone who can do this kind of sorcery, if only once, should be showered with garlands and their name should be praised for centuries.

Beatrice Rana, characterised by Gramophone as a pianist of “fire and poetry, imagination and originality, temperament and charm, all on top of fearless technical address”, brings together two monumental sonatas: Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Piano Sonata (No. 29) and Chopin’s Piano Sonata No. 2 in B♭minor, Op. 35, famous for its third movement, the Funeral March.

Turning 90 in December 2013, Menahem Pressler was the pianist of the legendary Beaux Arts Trio for almost 55 years, and continues to enjoy a blossoming career as soloist and recitalist, while remaining committed to teaching. For the greater part of his life, Pressler has lived with the two great sonatas recorded here. As an epilogue to these two pillars of the piano literature, Pressler has chosen to play a particular favorite of his, Chopin's brief but exquisite Nocturne in C sharp minor, a work that he often performs at the end of his recitals.

This CD is so commanding in its musicality that one can hardly imagine being able to sit still for the live recital itself, given in Carnegie Hall in Feb. 1993. Kissin had already made the debut of a lifetime, also recorded by RCA, but this Chopin recital and its compansion from the same event exhibit a towering mastery. The famous showpieces–the F minor Fantasy, Grande Valse Brillante, F-sharp minor Polonaise, Scherzo #2–eclipse all rivals unless you go back to Rachmaninov, and the audience knew it. Their applause is a roar of ecstatic approval.

Beatrice Rana, characterised by Gramophone as a pianist of “fire and poetry, imagination and originality, temperament and charm, all on top of fearless technical address”, brings together two monumental sonatas: Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Piano Sonata (No. 29) and Chopin’s Piano Sonata No. 2 in B♭minor, Op. 35, famous for its third movement, the Funeral March.

For her Chopin debut on MDG (MDG9471818), Jin Ju was awarded the highest honors from the top authorities: the jury of the Grand Prix du Disque Frédéric Chopin. It is only every five years that these guardians of the Chopin legacy come together to distinguish a mere four extraordinary recordings. Now this Chinese pianist blessed with a special interpretive sense celebrates her induction into this illustrious circle with a continuation of recordings for MDG.

A wonderful idea brilliantly executed, Bart van Oort's four-disc set entitled The Art of the Nocturne is not only an in-depth examination of one of the most romantic of romantic musical forms, but also a really sexy set of seduction discs that cannot fail to warm even the coldest heart. The first disc in Oort's survey includes all the elegantly expressive Nocturnes of Irish-Russian composer John Field, the second and third discs include all the supremely sensual Nocturnes of Polish-French composer Frédéric Chopin, and the fourth disc includes individual Nocturnes by various contemporaries of Chopin, of whom the best known are Clara Schumann and Charles-Valentin Alkan and the least known is Ignacy Feliks Dobrzynski.