Chopin: Ballade No. 4 in F minor, Op. 52

James Rhodes' story is an unusual one: he has had no formal academic musical education or dedicated mentoring.The title of this, his debut album, hints at the suffering that dogged Rhodes's childhood and early adult life. Classical music became his solace and key to his survival. It was Bach, Beethoven and Chopin; not Faith, Hope and Charity, that offered him comfort. Razor Blades, Little Pills and Big Pianos explores the emotive landscape that we call 'life'.The recording, performed at the magical Potton Hall, tucked away in a seductive Brittenesque patch of Suffolk, is somewhat of a biographical expression of Rhodes's complex and unorthodox journey. And yes, he can play.

Friedrich Gulda plays Schubert & Chopin on various recordings made in 1954 and1956.

Alessandra Ammara graduated from the "L. Cherubini" Conservatory of Florence and the Accademia Pianistica of Imola. She honed her talents in some of today's most important music schools, like the International Piano Foundation at Lake Como and the School of Music in Fiesole, with great musicians like Maria Tipo, Dmitri Bashkirov, Leon Fleisher, William Naboré and Fou Ts'ong. She has drawn the attention of the musical world after achieving brilliant results in some of the more important international piano competitions, such as the "G. B. Viotti" in Vercelli, the "J. Iturbi" in Valencia, the "Casagrande" in Terni, the "Van Cliburn" in Fort Worth. In 2000 she was a Laureate of the "Esther Honens" international piano competition in Calgary, Canada. She has collaborated with many great interpreters, including Ingrid Attrot, Rocco Filippini, Alban Gerhardt, Anton Kuerti, Shauna Rolston, the Takacs Quartet, the Sine Nomine Quartet. Since 1999 she regularly plays in piano duo with Roberto Prosseda. Ms. Ammara has recorded a successful CD for the Canadian label "Arktos" with music by Debussy, Scriabin and Chopin. She was chosen to take part in the new complete Chopin edition produced by Brilliant Classics, together with some of the greatest pianists in the world.

Frederick Chopin’s four Ballades are mature works written between 1836 and 1842.after he left his Polish homeland. They represent pure music in its finest form without any suggestive narration, though it is clear that Chopin was inspired by the stories of his native Poland and particularly the poems of Adam Mickiewicz. The Ballades are considered to be some of the finest of Chopin's creations and among the most representative of romantic music. Chopin composed 58 Mazurkas (there seem to be at least another 2 unfinished sketches), and in them you get to know the very heart and soul of his native Poland. Many of his other works of different genres are either inspired by the Mazurka or have parts of Mazurkas within them. Chopin did not invent the mazurka form, however it was he alone who put it on the public stage and refined it into the highest level of music.

The pianistic universe of Chopin is radical, in its harmony, its articulation, its melismata, its phrasing.

This radicality is heard both as expressive violence - Chopin is an extremist - and as a perpetual interrogation of the foundations of the piano. Its virtuosity is never demonstrative: one always encounters harmonic problems closely linked to the placing of the hand, in an equilibrium constantly compromised and immediately restored. Hugues Dufourt.

On CD for the first time, the legendary Baldwin Recordings from 1981. Elegant interpretations. Masterfully performed and recorded by the then sixty-six year old Earl Wild. This all Chopin disc includes the Fantasie, Ballade No. 4, Four Waltzes, Four Nocturnes, Four Preludes, 'Black Key' Etude and the Andante Spinato and Grande Polonaise Op.22.