Chopin Cpiano Solos

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.

With ‘La Ronde’, Nicholas Angelich pays tribute to the relationships between three of Romanticism’s greatest composers for the piano. Schumann, Chopin and Liszt were born within 18 months of each other and knew each other personally. Schumann dedicated Kreisleriana to Chopin, who dedicated two of his Op.10 Etudes to Liszt, who, closing the circle, dedicated his B minor Piano Sonata to Schumann.

As one of the foremost interpreters of the piano music of Frédéric Chopin, Nelson Freire has a rather small number of all-digital recordings of this oeuvre on CD, most of them recorded for Decca since 2005. This double-disc package of the nocturnes is an excellent example of Freire's artistry, and the expressive lyricism and refined execution that are hallmarks of his playing are fully evident. The 20 nocturnes are among Chopin's most personal and intimate pieces, and Freire treats them all with tender feeling and a melodic sensibility that emphasize the vocal quality of the ornate melodies.

When Pogorelich did not make the finals of the 1980 Warsaw Competition (where they play exclusively Chopin), his response was to sign with Deutsche Grammophon for his first recording and he made it an all-Chopin affair. From his stunning opening take on Chopin's Sonata #2, to a Funeral March restored to its grandeur, to the breaktaking final moments of the Scherzo #3, Pogorelich announced to the music world that he'd arrived.

Internationally acclaimed Swedish pianist Peter Jablonski is known as a fervent champion of Polish music. In this album Jablonski returns to some of his dearest piano music – Chopin’s Mazurkas. For Chopin, the Mazurkas became a deeply personal, intimate statement of his feelings as an émigré Polish composer living in Paris. From some of his very first compositions to his last, it is the only form that Chopin composed regularly throughout his life. Similarly, Chopin’s Mazurkas have followed Peter Jablonski throughout his entire career as a pianist in nearly every solo recital.

Paulina Viardot and Luigi Bordeses Chopin Mazurkas transcriptions attempted to bring the 19th c. style of vocal-instrumental chamber music closer to its then present-day listeners. Chopins settings to texts by Polish poets remain little known, particularly outside Poland; the transcriptions of his mazurkas for voice and piano, performed extremely rarely, have fallen almost into oblivion. Recorded using a historical Pleyel piano, these transcriptions aim to recreate the pleasurable listening atmosphere of those distant years.

One of the first recordings that earned Ivan Moravec acclaim and secured him a position among the finest pianists of the 20th century was the album of the complete Chopin Nocturnes made in 1965 in New York (Steinway) and at Vienna's Konzerthaus (Bösendorfer) for the Connoisseur Society label. Many critics have branded this recording a benchmark and consider it the ultimate account of the Nocturnes; in the words of Henry Fogel (Fanfare): "This is playing that draws the listener deeply into the music-you are not drawn into Moravec's achievement, but Chopin's." Ivan Moravec presents the Nocturnes in an admirable scale of colours and dynamics (down to astonishingly tender, barely touched tones), with the music flowing so naturally that it seems as though there are no bars or individual notes.

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.