Field Nocturnes (míċeál O'rourke)

Were we committed to tracing Chopin’s melodic evolution, it is in the nocturnes that we find a possible answer. From the operatic archetypes found in the early Op. 9 to the narcotic orientalism in the first of Op. 62, the last set that Chopin published, bel canto had a fundamental role in shaping the composer’s melodic consciousness. It is often said that it is in the intimate nature of the salon that Chopin’s nocturnes should be placed; it was mostly women who performed them in public in the 19th century, precisely because of their purported feminine qualities. But we also witness devastating outbursts in the middle sections of Op. 9 No. 3, Op. 15 Nos. 1 and 3, or in the operatic climax to which the heart of the Op. 55 No. 1 gives rise.

Chopin’s 21 Nocturnes, often described as ‘songs of the night’, are among the most well-known and beautiful of Chopin’s short solo piano works.

For his latest Deutsche Grammophon album, Polish-Canadian pianist Jan Lisiecki has chosen to return to the music of Frédéric Chopin, featuring profoundly personal interpretations of some of the most beautiful and best-loved pieces ever written for solo piano. Lisiecki went into the studio last autumn, and his new recording not only captures the spirit of Chopin's pianism, but also represents the time and circumstances in which it was made, as the pianist himself explains: 'I'm the first to question why we should record something that has been recorded many times before. But music only lives through performance and is different every time we hear it, even when it's a recording. I think there was something for me to say with this album. It reflects on the last year and my thoughts on that as well as on the escape and understanding that music gives us.'

Above the album worked the 'Nocturnes for Piano ', and his release took place on 2021. The album has got songs with a total duration of more than an hour. A compilation is a compilation of original music.

This is a live recording of the concert given by Josu de Solaun in the auditorium of the Fundación Juan March in Madrid on 30 March 2019. Part of the Foundation’s “Música en la noche” (Music at night) series, the recital offered a different interpretation of one of the most popular solo piano genres: the nocturne. Rather than focusing on the canonical works of Chopin, this programme explores the less familiar margins of the repertoire, transporting the listener to a night without frontiers. Eight composers of five different nationalities (American, Italian, French, Romanian and Bulgarian) together create an alternative and light-filled vision of the nocturne.

Czerny is remembered as Beethoven's favoured interpreter of his own piano works and is well known as List's teacher, but it is for his pedagogic works, still in use to this day, that he continues to enjoy renown. The Nocturnes offer a less familiar view of Czerny. These sensitively shaped, small-scale Biedermeier compositions offered domestic households the opportunity to savour their sense of delicacy and enigmatic mood changes. The Op. 604 set is rather more robust than Op. 368, which is exquisitely sensitive, but equally convincing in characterisation and scope.

Czerny is remembered as Beethoven's favoured interpreter of his own piano works and is well known as List's teacher, but it is for his pedagogic works, still in use to this day, that he continues to enjoy renown. The Nocturnes offer a less familiar view of Czerny. These sensitively shaped, small-scale Biedermeier compositions offered domestic households the opportunity to savour their sense of delicacy and enigmatic mood changes. The Op. 604 set is rather more robust than Op. 368, which is exquisitely sensitive, but equally convincing in characterisation and scope.

Award-winning Polish composer, Paweł Łukaszewski, is one of today’s most distinctive creators of contemporary sacred music. The Nocturnes for piano, based on some of his own sacred pieces, are inspired by the cosmos, with each nocturne named after a newly discovered bright star in constellations including Vela, Scorpius and the Southern Cross. Łukaszewski takes the listener on a journey through the beauty of the night sky with these intimate and atmospheric sound paintings.