Chopin: Mazurka No. 49 in F minor, Op. 68 No. 4

“Min plays with the most ravishing piano tone I’ve heard in the last 50 discs I’ve listened to, at least! Her dynamic control is out of this world … anybody’s music would be served well by Min’s touch.”

Thus raved American Record Guide’s Stephen Estep in his review of a previous recording by distinguished Korean pianist Klara Min. With this release, Min brings her special touch to a seventeen-piece survey of her favorite Mazurkas – a unique “composer genre” from Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849): widely regarded as the most intimate, heartfelt, emotionally varied, and deeply personal music that this beloved “Poet of the piano” ever wrote. Loosely based on the traditional Polish mazurek dance-form, Chopin applied subtle classical sophistication and advanced (for his day) harmonic schemes to this mostly simple folk-form, elevating it into high musical art that is far better-suited to the concert stage (or classical recordings) than to dancing!

Klara Min – justly renowned for her championing of Korean composers as well as her overall versatility – applies her “ravishing piano tone” to these lovely and affecting works, as well as her rare interpretive acumen, technical wizardry, plus a deeply intuitive and soulful affinity for Chopin’s music.

Cédric Tiberghien offers us a panorama of Chopin’s output, with three of the composer’s key works framed by a selection of mazurkas.

“I devised a recital programme for the 150th anniversary of Chopin’s death in 1999. The idea was to offer a panoramic survey of his output featuring several representative ‘large’ pieces, with the mazurkas providing a sort of chronological thread between them. So ten years later it was a natural process to narrow the focus down to three key pieces from different periods of Chopin’s life, surrounded by a generous selection of mazurkas… One of the very first Chopin pieces I discovered was on a record telling the story of the composer’s life: the Mazurka op.68 no.2, which illustrates the nostalgia for his homeland, the melancholy so often present in his music. I think the mazurkas show the most intimate side of Chopin’s personality, with their mixture of improvisation, evocation, and the ephemeral. These short pieces were a way for him to stay in touch with the roots of his country; he has nothing to prove, he submits to no rule except that of his inner music. I find it fascinating to see how varied Chopin’s inspiration is despite the common basis of all the mazurkas. As I explored the fifty-one pieces in the collection, I rediscovered masterpieces I thought I knew already, while others that were new to me have now become essential parts of my life. Chopin wrote mazurkas throughout his adult career, from 1830 to 1849. The first ones (opp.6 and 7) emphasise the popular element, while the later examples (op.59, op.68 no.4) show an unprecedented harmonic refinement that betrays his contact with French culture. The Scherzo has always struck me with its violence, which grips you right from the first chord and never lets up until the magnificent ‘Christmas carol’ which is transcendent in its simplicity. The Nocturne illustrates how important melody was for Chopin. He insisted that all his pupils should practise singing so that they would sense the phrasing, the direction of the lines, the moments of tension and relaxation. The Polonaise-Fantaisie is a very special work. It’s at the very opposite pole from the mazurkas, if only in its dimensions; and it achieves a mysterious balance between its improvisatory aspect and the strength of its architecture, between extreme complexity and a feeling of intimacy. The opening chords warn the listener: ‘Prepare for an extraordinary journey.’ If I were allowed to keep only one work by Chopin, it would be this Polonaise-Fantaisie in A flat – a key which was very dear to him, incidentally. For me it’s the perfect expression of his personality.” Cédric Tiberghien

“When Tiberghien next plays in London, be there.” Geoff Brown, The Times

Concert reviews: Chopin Mazurkas

“The case for the innovatory nature of Chopin's mazurkas, penetrating the deepest of emotions often with the sparsest of musical gestures, was formidably made.” Tim Ashley, The Guardian, 26 January 2010

“This is very close to what we know about Chopin's own playing...How well Tiberghien caught the gentle, musing melancholy of the opening, and how the silence before the ensuing storm seemed to press on our eardrums!” The Daily Telegraph

Stephen Hough joins the celebrations for Chopin’s 200th birthday with a disc containing much of the composer’s most extraordinary music, written in the last years of his life where the expressive possibilites of his art were constantly unfolding as he imbued his favoured forms with previously unknown levels of complexity and emotional depth. This disc includes the intoxicatingly ornamented Berceuse Op 57 and the sublime Barcarolle in F sharp major as well as the Polonaise-Fantasy in A flat major and the towering Piano Sonata No 3 in B minor. Also included are two late Nocturnes which demonstrate how Chopin’s art had evolved since he first composed in that genre in his youth. The programme is completed by a selection of Mazurkas, each a tiny jewel, containing no less mastery than their larger counterparts, and providing moving sonic evidence of the contemplative profundity of Chopin’s late style.

Stephen Hough’s extraordinarily sensitive playing is informed by his limitless technique and engaging musical imagination. This is the Chopin of a true Romantic.

The miniatures collected here speak to vanished worlds and altered lives, to the fragility of destiny and the possibilities of new beginnings: postcards from the Exiles' Café

A captivating presence both on and offstage, critically acclaimed Steinway Concert Artist Lara Downes is redefining the solo recital format with visionary, cutting-edge performances at prestigious concert venues worldwide. Lauded by NPR as "a delightful artist with a unique blend of musicianship and showmanship" and praised by the Washington Post for her stunning performances "rendered with drama and nuance," Lara presents the piano repertoire - from iconic favourites to newly commissioned works - in new ways that bridge musical tastes, genres and audiences.

These recordings were made in the Moscow Conservatory in 1984, when Evgeny Kissin was only 13 years old.

The young artist demonstrates remarkable proficiency.

This will be of interest to all admirers of this outstanding musician.

This is a very personal album from the pianist Vardo Rumessen.

It is dedicated to the memory of the Polish President Lech Kaczynski who, along with a number of colleagues and family members, lost his life in the air disaster in Smolensk on April 10th 2010

There are treasures tangible and glittering, and there are gems concealed, only revealing themselves to the serene and seeking. The world-famous Czech pianist Ivan Moravec is among the latter – and the same can be said of his recordings.

He doesn’t need to set out to shock and purposefully set himself apart. The seeming matter-of-factness with which Moravec performs Chopin led a Gramophone (II/1992) reviewer to speculate that this is perhaps how the composer’s piano improvisation might have sounded. Each tone in its dynamism, each fine accent is well considered and has its place amid the whole. Moravec masterfully balances free agogics with a sense for the overall structure.

Chopin’s genius stands out most expressively in tiny compositions – and it is in these that Ivan Moravec’s mastery is the most distinct; it is not by chance that he has the reputation of being one of the greatest living interpreters of Chopin’s works. Bearing witness to this are enthusiastic reviews of the first release of the presented recording (1991, Dorian). Now Supraphon – to the delight of all Chopin lovers and Ivan Moravec fans – is bringing this remarkable album back to life.