The Chopin Piano Concertos

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.

The pianist on this CD, Yulliana Avdeeva, is the winner of the Chopin piano competition in 2010. Checking the internet, you will find that the decision by the jury was controversial. Her playing was considered not to display the proper Chopin style, and too cool. I wasn't present at the competition, so I cannot write much about this. But having bought this CD, mainly because of use of old instruments, and the direction by the recently deceased icon of old music Frans Brüggen, I must say that I was totally blown away by the playing of Yulianna Avdeeva.

Known for his dazzling performances of music by Franz Liszt and Sergey Rachmaninov, Russian virtuoso Nikolai Lugansky presents his first recording of the two piano concertos of Frédéric Chopin, which are much quieter than his usual fare. Indeed, the music seems quite intimate and almost chamber-like on this 2013 Naïve Ambroisie release, due to Lugansky's controlled and fairly introspective playing.

For her first recording on the Linn label, Ingrid Fliter performs the two piano concertos of Frédéric Chopin with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Jun Märkl, and both performances are presented in the hybrid SACD format. The multichannel treatment might seem excessive for these works, since the piano part is always clear and prominent, and the orchestration isn't dense or complicated. Even so, the myriad subtleties of dynamics, attacks, and phrasing come across with exceptional clarity and effectiveness in the state-of-the-art recording, which does a great service to Fliter and the orchestra.

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.

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…

Pianist Yundi, formerly Yundi Li, might have several reasons for trying something new with Chopin. It was with Chopin that he became the youngest and the first Chinese winner of the International Frédéric Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, at age 18 in 2000, and he has played Chopin countless times since then. Cynics might recall that a Yundi Chopin concerto performance crashed and burned several years ago owing to miscommunications between pianist and conductor. Whatever the case, Yundi here conducts the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra from the keyboard.

For the 200th anniversary of the birth of Frédéric Chopin, the renowned Ruhr Piano Festival in Essen invited the Staatskapelle Berlin to give a truly special program: the rare combination of Chopin‘s two piano concertos in one concert. For this purpose Daniel Barenboim, the orchestra‘s principal conductor, handed over the reins of „his“ ensemble to up-and-coming young conductor Andris Nelsons, assuming the role of piano soloist instead. The press raved: „Storms of applause for a dream couple: Daniel Barenboim and Andris Nelsons won over the audience […] with their rousing Chopin interpretations“.

British pianist Benjamin Grosvenor presents a new recording of two concerto favourites: Chopin’s Piano Concertos Nos.1 and 2, released on 21st February 2020 on Decca Classics. Recorded with Elim Chan and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO), the record marks Benjamin’s fifth album on Decca Classics, following the hugely successful Homages in 2016, and is his first orchestral album since 2012.