Chopin: Prelude Op. 45 in C sharp minor (No. 25)

Alexandra Dariescu presents the first disc in a 'Trilogy of Preludes' containing the complete works of this genre by Chopin and Dutilleux.

Frederic Chopin composed his 24 preludes, op.28, one in each of the 12 major and 12 minor keys, between 1835 and 1839, commissioned by the pianist, publisher, impresario and piano manufacturer Camille Pleyel.

Henri Dutilleux’s 3 Preludes were not designed as a set but composed at intervals between 1973 and 1994. Each Prelude is dedicated to a great Pianist: Artur Rubinstein (D’ombre et de silence), Claude Helffer (Sur um meme accord) and Eugene Istomin (Le jeu des contraries).

Alexandra finds the form of the Prelude as relevant today as in Chopin's time and was drawn to Dutilleux's use of polyphony and harmony in his fascinating contribution to an established genre.

Alexandra Dariescu is one of the most talented pianists of her generation and was featured as BBC Music Magazine’s Rising Star in June 2011. She has won the Guildhall Wigmore Prize and the Romanian Ambassador‘s prize for her outstanding contribution to promoting Romania’s image in the UK, and is currently a YCAT artist.

Naïve celebrates the bicentenary of Frédéric Chopin’s birth with the debut release from Israeli pianist Edna Stern - a programme devoted to the Polish composer’s Sonata No 2 and various short pieces, performed on the famous 1842 Pleyel piano at Paris’s Musée de la Musique.

The award winning Belgian-born Israeli pianist, Edna Stern, presents an all Chopin programme featuring a selection his Études, Waltzes, Préludes and Ballades, together with the well-known Sonata No 2. Chopin admired above all others the pianos of the firm of Pleyel. For this recording, Edna Stern plays the famous Pleyel piano (1842) held at the Musée de la Musique in Paris. The grand Pleyel piano is characteristic of the instruments Chopin had at his disposal during the last ten years of his life, it is very similar to the grand piano of 1839 which belonged to the composer from 1839 to 1841.

This release is part of the Cité de la Musique series on Naïve – offering internationally renowned musicians the opportunity to record on the legendary instruments on display within the museum of early instruments at the Cité de la Musique. Edna Stern is a multi-award winning recording artist. Her first recording, ‘Chaconne’, won the Diapason Découverte and Arte ‘Best CD 2005’ awards. She has been described as having “the panache of Martha Argerich, the musicality of Leon Fleisher and the impeccable finish of Krystian Zimerman.” (Diapason, August 2005).

Nikolai Lugansky signs to ONYX, and returns to the studio after a gap of several years.

Lugansky has recorded 23 CDs. His solo recordings on Warner Classics - Chopin Etudes, Rachmaninov Preludes & Moments musicaux and Chopin Preludes – were each awarded a Diapason d'Or. His PentaTone Classics SACD of Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1, with the Russian National Orchestra under Kent Nagano, was cited as “Editor’s Choice” in Gramophone. His Warner Prokofiev CD was one of the “CDs of the Year (2004)“ featured in The Telegraph. Lugansky’s Warner recordings of the complete piano concertos of Rachmaninov, with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Sakari Oramo, received Choc du Monde de la Musique, Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik and the 2005 ECHO Klassik Award. His last recording (Chopin's and Rachmaninov's cello sonatas) with the cellist Alexander Kniazev won the 2007 Echo Klassik Award.

His all-Chopin recital will be one of the most important CDs to be released in 2010 to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the composer’s birth.

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?

'I like to play the cycle of Preludes without interruption, with the same tension, a certain underlying fear even in the most serene preludes.' Two years after his CD devoted to the Waltzes, Alexandre Tharaud returns to Chopin, the composer he has played most often and who has never failed to move him deeply. In addition to the Preludes in A flat and Op.45 and the Trois nouvelles études, he has provided the cycle with a more recent echo in music by Federico Mompou. In their personality, their careers, their exclusive relationship with the piano, their attention to sonority, and their inward melody, the two composers have much in common.