Frederic Chopin Alice Sara Ott Complete Waltzes (2009) [repost, New Rip]

For her tenth Deutsche Grammophon release, pianist Alice Sara Ott returns to the music of Frédéric Chopin. She approaches Chopin’s 24 Préludes op. 28 from a fresh perspective, finding a personal thread that parallels the music’s dramatic arc and wide-ranging moods. The pianist frames the Préludes within a contemporary context by interspersing them with seven works by 20th- and 21st-century composers.

Alice Sara Ott presents a new deluxe version of the successful Echoes of Life album, set for release on 27 October. Among the 11 newly recorded tracks complementing the original album are the famous Bach Prelude in C Major both on a grand piano and a specifically prepared upright piano, as well as Silvestrov’s Distant Music, Chopin Preludes and a new composition by Alice’s friend Chilly Gonzales. The album is now available for pre-order alongside the second pre-release track ‘Silvestrov: Distant Music’.

After 2021’s critically acclaimed Echoes of Life, pianist Alice Sara Ott has now recorded a selection of works by Beethoven for her latest album. At the heart of Beethoven is Piano Concerto No. 1, Op. 15, in which she is joined by the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and its Chief Conductor Karina Canellakis. Ott and Canellakis were in fact approached by Apple Music to record this particular concerto, with the result that they and the orchestra became the stars of the Apple Music Classical app launch video earlier this year. The pianist then selected a series of solo works to complement the concerto performance, including “Für Elise” and the “Moonlight” Sonata. Beethoven is released digitally on 28 July – together with a “Für Elise” video – and physically on 29 September.

Pianist Alice Sara Ott releases Nightfall, an album that explores the transition and harmony between day and night, light and darkness. This recording features a collection of evocative pieces by Satie, Debussy, and Ravel, including Debussy's "Clair de lune" and Ravel's Gaspard de la nuit - all played with Ott's velvet touch and soulful depth.

Another example of superb programming, Piotr Anderszewski's Chopin recital on Virgin is brilliantly conceived and masterfully executed. Concentrating on the compoer's late works, Anderszewski's program starts with two sets of Mazurkas played with supple sensitivity and sympathetic poetry, builds through the last two Ballades played with dramatic intensity and terrific technique, climaxes in the last two Polonaises played with heroic grandeur and tremendous virtuosity, and closes with the tender and intimate Mazurka in F minor as an encore. Anderszewski's technique is imperious, his tone is sensual, his performances are emotional, and his interpretations are magisterial. Individually, each performance is strong and vital. Taken all together, the whole disc is more than the sum of its parts. Virgin's sound is warm but a bit close and sometimes a little too immediate.

Before '70s superstardom, even before Humble Pie, Peter Frampton got his first taste of celebrity as a singer and guitarist in the Herd, who chalked up several hits in Britain in 1967 and 1968. Frampton was only 17 when the single "From the Underworld" went into the British Top Ten in late 1967; "Paradise Lost" and "I Don't Want Our Loving to Die" were hits for the group in the first half of 1968. The Herd's brand of mod was extremely commercial and good-timey- and pop-oriented, a bit like a muted and mainstream Small Faces. Much of their material (including all of the hits) was written by their management team of Ken Howard and Alan Blaikley, who had supplied songs for the Honeycombs (of "Have I the Right" fame).