Chopin: Prelude Op. 28 No. 15 in D flat major ‘Raindrop'

Chopin spent the winter of 1838/39 with George Sand and her children in Majorca, where they stayed in an abandoned Carthusian monastery at Valldemosa. George Sand wrote a famous and popular story about the holiday. On this CD Sand's words, taken from her memoirs, are spoken by Hannelore Elsner.

The essential collection of favourite solo works for Chopin Year 2010!

Over 140 minutes of pure listening pleasure

2CDs for the price of 1

Featuring Argerich, Ashkenazy, Barenboim, Blechacz, Freire, Grimaud, Gulda, Horowitz, Lang Lang, Michelangeli, Ott, Pires, Pollini and many more

“Chopin was the greatest of us all, for he discovered everything through the piano alone”. So wrote Debussy about the Polish master, the 200th anniversary of whose birth is celebrated in 2010. This collection – featuring the world’s greatest pianists – bears out this remark, ranging from the dreamy to the heroic, from the passionate to the playful, with all Chopin’s favourite titles included.

Gulda's hottest Chopin phase was the mid-1950s, when he regularly played the complete Preludes and complete Ballades in concert. Captured here are recordings from a variety of sources, all released for the first time, with the exception of the Piano Concerto recording, made for Decca (with whom he also recorded the Preludes and Ballades)

Performances are sometimes fiercely virtuosic, sometimes dreamily spun-out. The Ballades in particular are carried off with great panache.

First ever releases of 24 Preludes, 4 Ballades and single pieces.

Special compiled improvisation, in which Gulda (among other things) muses over his (broken) relationship with Chopin.

All newly mastered / remastered by Paul Gulda, who writes the liner notes.

Idealised by romantic myth, Frédéric Chopin is one of the most celebrated composers in history. This virtuoso pianist devoted his whole output to his instrument and developed a unique style which made him “an extraordinary artist” (Berlioz). Here the musicians of harmonia mundi present some of his most famous pieces, a glimpse of the inner world of this genius who “made use of art solely to fulfil his own tragic destiny” (Liszt).

A journey into Chopin's world . . . On 21 February 1842, the Polish composer gave one of his very rare concerts: he did not enjoy appearing in public, for his music was above all a chamber art. Alain Planès has striven to recreate the programme of this concert as closely as possible and recorded it on a Pleyel piano of 1836 that the composer might have played.The questions he throws up in the process are fascinating: how did Chopin play? Apart from his famous rubato, what was the role of ornamentation, and indeed improvisation?

Debut release on ONYX from the legendary virtuoso and poet of the keyboard Nikolai Demidenko.

Recognised as one of the great Chopin players of our time, he recently performed these works during the Chopin Experience weekend on BBC Radio 3. This is his first recording of the Preludes.

Bryce Morrison in Gramophone magazine praised his last Chopin recital disc: "Demidenko's razor-sharp articulacy and immaculate dexterity are complemented by the finest musical grace and individuality" (Editor’s Choice, 2007)

Demidenko won the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1978, recorded a highly acclaimed series of discs in the 80s and 90s (mainly on Hyperion) including a Gramophone award-winning disc of Medtner Concertos. As a young man he was widely acclaimed as a firebrand virtuoso but this was never the whole story and like a good wine his playing has matured gloriously. Now with new management.