Chopin: Étude Op. 10 No. 12 in C minor ‘Revolutionary' - CD

Disc One intersperses the works with readings from George Sand's writings by Macha Meril; Disc Two presents them as a straight recital.

Chopin raised the pedagogic 'study' (etude) to entirely new levels with his Opp. 10 and 25. Virtuoso studies testing the technique of any pianist, there are also incredibly poetic works. Here they are unforgettably played by Nikita Magaloff and the Trois Nouvelles Etudes, three tiny gems that were posthumously published, complete this oeuvre.

IRENE SCHARRER, though perhaps the least remembered of the major Matthay pupils, was the earliest to record, beginning in 1909 at the age of 21.That in itself is a credit to her early fame, which she established through an extrovert, but always musical, virtuosity.

She excelled in such works as the Chopin Etudes, nine of which she recorded, and in other brilliant pieces such as those here by Scarlatti and Liszt, but the poise and refinement of her Chopin nocture or the slow movement of the Mozart sonata reveal another side to her playing that is sadly underrepresented on disc. Her final recording, of the Litolff Scherzo, was also her most famous; in its day it was a best seller and was responsible for putting that work on the musical map. This set reissues for the first time all Scharrer’s electrical recordings and also an example of every work she recorded in the acoustic era (pre 1925) that was not later remade as an electrical recording. For completeness, a discography of all her other acoustic recordings is also included.