Frédéric François Chopin

Rare and unreleased material recorded 1939-1958.

The public image of Friedrich Gulda (1930-2000) is divided: for some, he is one of the most important Beethoven interpreters of the 20th century, whereas others perceive him as an enfant terrible whose battle against the cultural establishment and the constraints of the music business, which limited his multifaceted artistic interests and talents, became legendary.As ever, such generalisations are both true and false. This compilation of hitherto unreleased recordings made by Gulda for the RIAS Berlin between 1950 and 1959 enables us to experience the pianist and musician Gulda in a more differentiated and unprejudiced manner. For even here, the 'complete musician' - as Gulda saw himself throughout his career - comes into view.The spectrum of recordings which, given the almost frightening concert and recording activities Gulda tackled during this decade, only represents the tip of the iceberg, speaks for itself: it stretches from Mozart to Prokofiev and shows Gulda to be a universal artist who, from the beginning, sought to combine the highest possible degree of objectivity and authenticity with the greatest intensity of music-making. Gulda's musical and pianistic foundations had been laid in Vienna by his teacher Bruno Seidlhofer, who had formed nearly all the important pianists of the 'Viennese School'; the quality of Gulda's training was confirmed by his being awarded the first prize at the Geneva Piano Competition in 1946 which Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli had won before him. Gulda looked for role models who displayed a spontaneous and at the same time controlled intensity in their playing, and he found them in American Jazz, whose inexorable rise in post-war Europe was to fascinate him throughout his career. The early Mozart and Beethoven recordings, made in 1950, demonstrate Gulda's phenomenal analytical understanding of compositional structures and his unerring sense of rhythm and touch. His Chopin and Ravel recordings are sensational: on the highest pianistic level, Chopin's Prélude Op. 28 and Ravel's Gaspard de la Nuit are presented in a rare, incisive manner on both a musical and dramatic level.With his interpretation of two important early works by Debussy, the Suite pour le Piano and the Suite bergamasque, as well as a selection of the Préludes, Gulda also proves to be one of the few non-French pianists who found a decidedly modern and yet authentic access to these masterworks.The programme closes with single pieces by Chopin (Nocturne in C minor,Op. 48 No. 1 and Berceuse Op. 60), demonstrating Gulda's intensive exploration of romantic works, as well as a spectacular recording of Prokofiev's Piano Sonata No. 7 Op. 83, made in 1950. Prokofiev's music, whose wildness in the end proved incompatible with Gulda, did not remain in his repertoire for long; he did, however, pass on important impulses to his most famous pupil, Martha Argerich.

Generous 77-minute programme.

Folke Nauta has recorded several CDs including the piano concertos of Röntgen, Schubert's Sonata D958, and mixed recital programme.

He was born in 1973 and has won many prizes in key competions around Europe.The Polonaise was a peasant dance from Poland that gained popularity in the early 18th century among composers and high society. Bach and Handel both wrote movements marked ‘Polonaise’, and in the early 19th century examples can be found in the finales of Beethoven’s Triple Concerto, and Field’s Third Piano Concerto. Chopin grew up with polonaise and other forms of traditional Polish music – his teacher, Elsner was a Polonaise composer, and the business of writing and publishing sets of polonaises was a lucrative one. There was another reason why such a traditional was so popular in Poland at this time; the country had once again been robbed of its independence, and the nationalistic pulling power of such music helped keep the national identity and spirit alive. Chopin’s genius took the simple tunes of the Polonaise and allowed him to create large-scale complex and dramatic works with myriad emotions. In many ways they captured the Polish spirit which remained defiantly unbroken.

Debut CD from Joanna Jimin Lee dances through the cosmos of the Polish – French composer’s works with polished elegance and deftness of touch.

Carnival, celebrated predominantly though by no means exclusively in Catholic countries, is the period of revelry – and excess – preceding the forty days of abstention during Lent, commemorating the privations of Jesus in the wilderness. The origin of the word is not clear, but it may come from the Latin carne vale, farewell to meat (theoretically forbidden in Lent), and the tradition goes back at least as far as the middle ages in Italy. Masked balls have figured importantly in the festivities, during which often “anything goes” and which reach a climax on the day before Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent, famously known as Mardi Gras (fat Tuesday, Shrove Tuesday in Britain). Many works of art – visual, literary and musical – have been inspired by the possibilities of the carnival; for the pianist the pinnacle is Schumann’s Carnaval, Op. 9, which is the focus of this CD. Also included on this disc are works on the same theme – and feature two première recordings This is the second is a trio of discs by Goldstone featuring piano transcriptions themed on forms of public spectacle, following “A Night at the Opera “ (DDA25067); the third “The Piano at the Ballet” is scheduled for release early in 2010.

Described by The New York Times as “a man whose nature was designed with pianos in mind”, Anthony Goldstone is one of Britain’s most respected pianists. He has enjoyed a career encompassing six continents, very many broadcasts and nearly seventy CDs. He has an adventurous approach to repertoire and has been praised by Vienna's Die Presse for “his astonishingly profound spiritual penetration”. In the last few years Goldstone has become known for his acclaimed completions and realisations of works for solo piano and piano duet by Schubert, and for two pianos and solo piano by Mozart, all of which he has recorded on Divine Art CDs. He is also one half of the acclaimed and brilliant piano duo Goldstone and Clemmow with his wife Caroline. The duo has made many CDs for Divine Art and other labels.

A year ago we issued, to great critical acclaim. A double album of Paderewski’s first recordings, made in Europe in 1911-12 (APR6006). Between 1914 and 1931 the pianist recorded for Victor in the US but in 1937, after it appeared Paderewski had retired from the studio, he was persuaded to return to the HMV studios in London to make a final series of recordings. At first the plan was to record the repertoire which featured in the film ‘Moonlight Sonata’, a huge blockbuster success at the time which featured Paderewski playing himself, but in addition to this repertoire Paderewski went on to record works by Haydn and Mozart which were new to his discography. It has often been said that in later life Paderewski’s technique was not what it had been, and to an extent the is undoubtedly true, but this is not an issue in the classical works featured here, and the Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven in particular reveal the extreme poetry that had mesmerised audiences for fifty years and had made Paderewski the most famous pianist of his generation.

This is the first time all Paderewski’s 1930’s HMV recordings have been assembled together and two unissued tracks from the 1938 sessions are also included.