Chopin: Scherzo No. 2 in B flat minor, Op. 31

Master pianist Maurizio Pollini turned 70 on January 5th, 2012 and DG are celebrating this milestone birthday with a new album of breath-taking Chopin. Pollini’s Chopin recordings are his best-sellers – the complete Nocturnes, released in 2005, have sold more than 100,000 CDs to date.

Chopin: Preludes is a birthday programme of newly recorded solo works: Preludes op.28, four Mazurkas op.30, two Nocturnes op.27, and the Scherzo no.2 op.31. Pollini often feature Chopin’s works in his solo recitals – The Guardian raved, “... he still plays Chopin with the ease that floored even Rubinstein more than 50 years ago ...”

Janina Fialkowski’s first Chopin recital received marvellous reviews and ATMA is delighted to release a second collection.

“This is some of Chopin’s greatest music and the playing is sheer bliss.” Sunday Times. “Her technical brilliance is matched by the vivid originality of her interpretations.” Independent – Album of the Week.

From the mid 1970’s until his death, Cuban born Jorge Bolet emerged as one of the world’s truly great pianists and one of the last representatives, along with the likes of Cherkassky, Horowitz and Earl Wild, of the great Romantic tradition of pianism. His pedigree was marvellous - a student of Godowsky-disciple David Saperton at the Curtis Institute, there he was also able to play for Godowsky himself and Josef Hofmann. He won the Naumburg competition in 1937 and looked set for a great career, but the war interrupted the flow of things and he struggled through the 1950s & 60s, mainly playing in the USA and not quite making the international ‘big-time’. His big break came with an RCA contract and the release on LP of a stunning live Carnegie Hall concert in 1974. Shortly after, he was signed to Decca and went on to make many award winning discs. But what of the early years? There’s not much, but here, for the first time on CD, we have the four LPs he made in the 1950s. His very first disc was of Latin-American repertoire that he was never to record again. Here also is the first ever recording of Prokofiev’s Second Piano Concerto in a performance that is still up there with the best.

These almost unknown discs are sure to fascinate, and fill an important gap in the mystery of Bolet’s early career.

Chopin Liszt Ravel is the debut album from the incredible Benjamin Grosvenor. Decca Classics’ new signing made his name as an 11 year old prodigy when he performed at the BBC Young Musician Final, (narrowly missing out to winner, violinist Nicola Benedetti). Still only aged 18, Benjamin has burst onto the performance scene. His debut album, Chopin Liszt, Ravel is out this July.

Benjamin is due to receive nationwide media attention when he performs at the First Night of the Proms, which will be followed by a BBC Breakfast News appearance. He will also tour this season with the National Youth Orchestra (and play at their BBC Prom) showing his relevance and support to young classical musicians today.

The life and career of Frédéric Chopin (“a man of noble ideas”, according to Debussy) have been much written about, and have given rise to numerous legends and exaggerated stories. The hackneyed clichés of the fragile and ailing artist, of the worldly seducer, and the unfortunate circumstances of his break-up with George Sand are all too well known to need re-telling here. Heinrich Heine said of Chopin that he was “the kindest, the most reserved and the most modest of men of genius”. The composer himself was notably reticent, but summed up his own complex personality with the words: “On the outside I am cheerful, but inside I am in turmoil.”

In addition to its staggering virtuosity, Chopin’s music is pervaded by an indefinable sadness that combines suffering, sensuousness and melancholy – characteristics that may owe something to his exile from his native Poland, which he left in 1830, never to return. The Nocturnes and some of the Preludes – several of which acquired sub-titles that the composer detested – give off a mysterious aura of poetry and comtemplation. “What emotions he was able to embody in music! And what passionate and melancholy reveries he liked to indulge in!” Berlioz recalled. Whatever sentiment is expressed in the music of Chopin, sensuousness remains one of the dominant elements of his aesthetic palette and of a musical style that was completely new and inimitable.

Young Danish/Portugese pianist Bruno d’Espiney is making a name for himself on concert platforms throughout Europe. These heart felt performances of these very well known compositions demonstrate why d’Espiney is a true rising star.

The making of this CD was part of the prize awarded to the winner of the 2007 Manchester International Piano Competition.

The First Manchester International Concerto Competition for Young Pianists was held in August 2007 in Manchester Cathedral, offering young pianists the rare and exciting opportunity to perform a concerto with an outstanding professional orchestra. Each applicant had to prepare and submit on DVD a complete performance of one of the standard romantic or classical piano concertos. From an initial number of pianists who entered from twenty countries, twenty-four young semifinalists were invited to come to Manchester to perform (twelve pianists in the 16 and under section and twelve in the 22 and under). After performing their concertos with piano accompaniment at Chetham’s School of Music, four finalists were chosen to perform their concertos with Manchester Camerata under Stephen Threlfall.

The competition was an unusual event in that every member of the jury was a well established concert pianist. In this respect it looked back to an earlier era of musical history, when the majority of jurors in piano competitions were players rather than teachers or critics. But the emphasis of the competition, which will be held again in August 2009 and which received a tremendous amount of encouragement and positive feedback from audiences, professional musicians, the media, teachers and participants themselves, is forward looking. It emphasises the positive for every young pianist who chooses to enter.