Chopin: Nocturne No. 2 in E flat major, Op. 9 No. 2

SFZ MUSIC, the independent label for His Majestys Sagbutts & Cornetts, are pleased to announce their latest release, a welcome return of the acclaimed partnership of Daniel Grimwood and the 1851 Erard piano. Their previous outing together, a recording of

the complete Années de Pèlerinage by Liszt was met with universal acclaim, having been Editor’s Choice in Gramophone, Telegraph CD of the week and awarded five stars in BBC Music Magazine. For this recording, the piano has been completely reconditioned, giving it greater depth in the bass, clarity in the treble, and evenness across the whole range. The piano is tuned to the Bach-Lehmann temperament, creating new dimensions of tonal character and expressiveness.

The winner of numerous international awards as a producer of both pop and classical recordings, Craig Leon also leads a career as a composer. His album for Joshua Bell of transcriptions for violin and orchestra was unanimously acclaimed everywhere, which prompted him quite naturally to turn to the cello after meeting Ophélie Gaillard when she was giving a concert at the Wigmore Hall. He has created new arrangements for her, reviving the long standing tradition of cellists, from Gregor Piatigorsky to Pablo Casals who played popular transcriptions of great works on their instruments. Ophélie is accompanied by the RPO, recorded at Abbey Road studios and supported by CIC who loaned her magnificent Gofriller cello.

“the rich tones of Ophélie Gaillard’s 1737 Gofriller cello complement her warm lyrical style and add colour to a keen awareness of instrumental vocalisation.” The Strad, June 2010

Producer and Audio restoration engineer: Ward Marston

Tender, impassioned, tinged with sadness and melancholy, Chopin’s nocturnes are moments of pure magic, pouring forth an inner life full of infinite dreams and surges of emotion. Their lyricism was born of the art of bel canto which Chopin loved so much: “you must sing if you want to play the piano”, he used to say. Pérez' recent record dedicated to Soler, also released with Mirare, has been considered ‘Exceptional Record’ by Scherzo magazine (Spain) and has been awarded a Choc du Disc by the French Classica magazine.

You may not have heard of Etsuko Hirosé, but you will. This young woman won the International Martha Argerich Competition in Buenos Aires in 1997 and the International Chopin in 1999 in Moscow. Competition winners are many, but the signs are that she is maturing into a formidable musician. The Ballades, Nocturnes and Fantaisie presented here were recorded at the exceptional venue La ferme de Villefavard in the Limousin, with acoustics by Albert Yaying Xu, whose projects also include the Beijing Opera, Cite de la Musique in Paris and the next Philharmonic Hall in Luxembourg.

Warren Mailley-Smith was featured as Classic FM’s Video of the week and Hot property of the week when his playing was described as ‘Sensational’, ‘Stunning’ and ‘Fantastic’. He is one of the UK’s outstanding pianists of his generation and was recently proposed as a new Steinway artist. This new recording is a timely release in Chopin’s 200th Anniversary year and will surely enhance the growing reputation of this fine young pianist.

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.

With his exceptional gift for melody and his highly sophisticated and subtle sense of harmony, Frederic Chopin created some of the most Romantic piano music ever written. This collection offers a widely varied selection of these beautiful and much loved pieces, from the calm introspective mood of the Nocturnes, through the pure joy of the Waltzes to the grand passion of the “Revolutionary” Etude in C minor, the Fantaisie-impromptu and the “Heroic” Polonaise.