Chopin: 12 Études, Op. 10

2010 marks the bicentenary of the births of Chopin and Schumann. Both composers wrote epochmaking piano works, their etudes in particular introducing quite new techniques and musical approaches. Ragna Schirmer sees the challenge of these works as presenting them in such a musical manner that their exercise function recedes into the background.

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.

To celebrate the 200th anniversary of Chopin’s birth we are reissuing on Helios some of the finest performances from Garrick Ohlsson’s complete Chopin project, originally recorded for the American label Arabesque and reissued on Hyperion as a 16 CD boxed set CDS44351/66) in 2008. Sadly unacknowledged at the time of their original issue (very few of the original discs received much review coverage), these CDs include some of the greatest contemporary Chopin playing and include definitive performances of the complete etudes and mazurkas. It’s worth remembering the not only did Garrick win the 1970 Chopin competition (the only American to do so), but he also won the special prize for Mazurka playing, that most idiomatically Polish genre of Chopin’s output.