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

This CD displays both Ms Blumental’s phrasing and technique as well as her affinity for the music of her homeland. Her stirring and illuminating interpretation of the 2nd movement in Chopin’s Concerto is beautifully balanced by the four lively Scherzi.

The 1956 RIAS recordings of Solomon, made shortly before the tragic end of his career, are benchmark recordings even today thanks to their sonorous lucidity and structural transparency. Archive releases of recordings made by the English pianist Solomon (1902-1988) are particularly noteworthy – partly due to the tragic turning point in the life of this exceptional artist. In 1956, during recordings of the complete Beethoven sonatas and following recordings of the piano concertos by Grieg and Schumann for EMI-Columbia, he suffered a major stroke which forced him into silence for the rest of his life. The music world was thus robbed of an eminent pianist and artist who, with his technically and creatively superior interpretations, always managed to penetrate the core of the musical message.

Solomon’s recordings of the classical and romantic piano repertoire document the highest artistic standing and, as such, take an immovable place in the history of pianism. This programme, recorded in February 1956 at the RIAS Berlin, is one of the last recordings made by Solomon. It is compiled in the same manner as his concert tours of 1955: two Beethoven sonatas form the centrepiece and are supplemented by works of Bach, Chopin, Schumann and Brahms.

The Polish pianist Adam Harasiewicz was born in 1932, and had a meteoric rise to fame when he captured first prize at the Fifth Chopin International Competition in Warsaw. Although his name may be unfamiliar to many today, other names at that competition in 1955 included Fou Ts’ong and Vladimir Ashkenazy. Harasiewicz has been mentioned by aficionados in the same breath as Argerich, Rubinstein, Zimmerman and Cortot as one of the leading interpreters of Chopin. He was equally at home with the music of Szymanowski and Brahms, but it was always Chopin that he focused on and his small discography chiefly consists of this composer’s music.

Harasiewicz signed to a major record label in the late 1950s and ’60s and among the notable recordings he made during this period were the complete sonatas, scherzos and ballades included on these two CDs.

He remained active on the concert scene into the 1970s, though he didn’t record again and sadly his reputation faded. These recordings confirm his talent as a Chopin interpreter, with a brilliant, crisp and powerful tone.

‘The Fantasia is even better; here the pianist has complete grasp of the material and the result is magnificent.’ Gramophone, September 1960

‘Adam Harasiewicz is a splendid player of Chopin. Whether because of his Polish blood or of a natural sensibility, he seems to have a special affinity with the quieter and more lyrical moments of the music, especially in their rhythmic shaping. Yet turn the page and there is no lack of sparkle in the more brilliant passages or address in the more thundering.’ Gramophone, August 1964

‘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.’

Mirare’s impressive roster of pianists commemorate the Chopin 2009 anniversary at a special price.

The essential collection of favourite solo works for Chopin Year 2010!

Over 140 minutes of pure listening pleasure

2CDs for the price of 1

Featuring Argerich, Ashkenazy, Barenboim, Blechacz, Freire, Grimaud, Gulda, Horowitz, Lang Lang, Michelangeli, Ott, Pires, Pollini and many more

“Chopin was the greatest of us all, for he discovered everything through the piano alone”. So wrote Debussy about the Polish master, the 200th anniversary of whose birth is celebrated in 2010. This collection – featuring the world’s greatest pianists – bears out this remark, ranging from the dreamy to the heroic, from the passionate to the playful, with all Chopin’s favourite titles included.

Producer and Audio Restoration Engineer: Ward Marston

With his exceptional gift for melody and his highly sophisticated and subtle sense of harmony, Frederic Chopin created some of the most Romantic piano music ever written. This collection offers a widely varied selection of these beautiful and much loved pieces, from the calm introspective mood of the Nocturnes, through the pure joy of the Waltzes to the grand passion of the “Revolutionary” Etude in C minor, the Fantaisie-impromptu and the “Heroic” Polonaise.

The CD contains the Sonata in B flat minor, Op. 35, Scherzo in B flat minor, Op. 31, Nocturne in C sharp minor, Mazurkas and Waltzes in a new recording on an Erard piano from 1849 made by the brilliant pianist and Chopin interpreter Janusz Olejniczak, winner of Sixth Prize in the International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw (1970).

Recorded in Witold Lutoslawski Polish Radio Concert Studio, Warsaw, 10-11 September 2007.

Elisabeth Leonskja is considered to be one of the great artists of our time and regularly appears in all the musical centres of the world.