Chopin: Scherzo No. 4 in E major, Op. 54 - download (MP3 & FLAC)

Acclaimed as a ‘one of the most talented young musicians to emerge from the UK’ by the Frankfurter Neue Press, Stephen Beville made his ‘concerto debut’ while still at school, and has gone on to perform with orchestras such as the Baden-Philharmonie.

From 1989 to 1994, Stephen attended the Royal Academy of Music (Junior Academy) learning composition, piano and conducting. Having won a Yamaha scholarship, he read Music at the Universities of York and Huddersfield. During this time he studied the piano privately with Peter Katin. He graduated in 1998 with First Class Honours and was awarded the Wilfrid Mellers prize and the Rodwell prize. Stephen continued his studies at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. He was awarded the Postgraduate Diploma and Mmus in Performance with Composition, as well as the Professional Performance Diploma with Distinction - the highest accolade of the RNCM. He is the winner of RNCM scholarships for piano and composition and the recipient of the Lucy Pierce Award. He has performed with the RNCM Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra and New Ensemble in a range of music, not least his own work.

In 2001, Stephen won a scholarship to study in Germany at the Staadt Hochschule fur Musik, Karlsruhe, Germany. There he obtained two Konzertexamens for piano and composition with highest marks. In addition, he received a scholarship from the Heinrich Strobel Foundation (Freiburg) to support his studies, where he explored possibilities of live instrumental performance with electronic resources available at the computer studio. This resulted in compositions with piano such as The Echoing Sky, Three Michelangelo Pieces and Fashionism – Scenes of Youth for electric guitar, piano, percussion and electronics. All have been performed to critical acclaim – the first piece in collaboration with the Badische Konservatorium to mark 400 years of keyboard music. In 2011, a first volume of his music was published by the Berlin-based music publishers Simon- Verlag für Bibliothekwissen.

As soloist, Stephen has given recitals throughout Britain and Germany, his performances receiving outstanding reviews. In addition he has made recordings and given interviews for SWR (South West German Radio). This is his commercial CD recording debut.

This double-CD set includes all of Ivo Pogorelich’s solo Chopin recordings: complete sets of Preludes and Scherzos, the “Funeral March” Sonata – in a recital that includes Etudes, the Polonaise op. 44 and the timeless E-flat Nocturne op. 55 no. 2. Pogorelich brings all of his magnificent technique and virtuosity to these masterpieces.

”Second to none in sheer keyboard brilliance … everything he does is always done with princely authority.” (Gramophone)

recorded at RCA Studios, Hollywood, 29 June 1949 - 26 September 1950

These works, written between 1830 and 1842 contain musical meaning in all their passages of pianistic virtuosity and this raises them far beyond the level of brilliant musical trickery. This the first time that Bernd Glemser has performed solo works by Chopin on CD. His recording of Bach Piano Transcriptions (OC 706) was reviewed “beautifully played, intelligent, sensitive and wonderful arrangements….”.

‘In the era of the great romantic pianists, it used to be the fashion at piano recitals to offer an improvisation in the same key as that of the piece that was scheduled to follow, in order to get the audience ‘in the mood’. To compensate for this lost art, I have thought of always playing one of the nocturnes before a major piano composition by Chopin. It makes these nocturnes appear more like an improvisation, to serve as counterweight to the very dense content of the Ballades, Scherzos, and Sonatas. This practice transfers smoothly the logic of a piano recital to a CD and makes more sense by allowing the listener to enjoy the contents in one stretch’ writes Louis Lortie on his concept for the album.

The immensely respected French-Canadian virtuoso Louis Lortie celebrates the Chopin anniversary with an album of Nocturnes and Scherzos for solo piano. These works stretch the pianist’s technique in every possible way. This Canadian pianist has long had an association with Chandos, and is recognised as one of the finest interpreters of Chopin. He first recorded Chopin’s Études for Chandos more than 20 years ago; it was named as one of the ‘50 great performances by superlative pianists’ by BBC Music Magazine. Since then he’s enjoyed an exceptionally rich performing and recording career. He won First Prize in the Busoni Competition in 1984. He was also a prize-winner at the Leeds Competition. He’s been named an Officer of the Order of Canada, and a Knight of the National Order of Quebec.

A recent performance at Carnegie Hall elicited the following review, ‘Those who bought a ticket to hear Louis Lortie play on Saturday night must have been extremely glad they did so. The pianist from Montreal gave a recital at Carnegie Hall that was filled with beauty, brains, and virtuosity.’

Profil’s Frédéric Chopin series has so far featured the Ballads and Impromptus (Vol. 1), Waltzes (Vol. 2), Polonaises (Vol. 3) and the Etudes (Vol. 4), and now the next in the series continues with a selection of more of his finest works.

His previous volumes have all been well received by the press and Eugene Mursky has proved that he is a first-rate pianist definitely worthy of his international competition success. He was awarded 1st Prize in the prestigious World Piano Competition, 1994, and also the Chopin Prize for the best Chopin interpretation.

“Mursky has shown himself to be an artist of potentially wonderful talent.” The Daily Telegraph