Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11

Chopin’s youthful Piano Concerto No. 1 is dominated by the brilliant piano part that the teenage performer-composer wrote to showcase his extraordinary virtuosity.

Its ravishing Romanza (‘reviving in one’s soul beautiful memories’, as the composer described it) is framed by an opening movement rich in dramatic lyricism and a vivacious Rondo.

The Fantasy on Polish Airs, Op. 13 and the Rondo à la Krakowiak are similarly vehicles for Romantic reverie and bravura which pay tribute to the music of his homeland.

Eldar Nebolsin’s recording of Liszt’s piano concertos (8570517) was ranked “among the finest” by Gramophone.

The Canadian pianist Jan Lisiecki is only fourteen years old, yet critics call him an ‘aristocrat of the piano’, ‘an extraordinary talent ‘and praise him for his mature and ‘remarkably poetic and imaginatively executed’ performances. He is already making a name for himself on the Canadian and international stage. The conductor Howard Shelley is himself an eminent pianist.

When Nobuyuki Tsujii rose from the piano, having completed his performance at the Thirteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, audience members leapt to their feet and jurors were moved to tears by his passionate interpretation of Chopin’s Piano Concerto No.1. Already known in his home country for his refined and effortless playing, his spell-binding performances brought Mr. Tsujii to the attention of hundreds of thousands of new fans throughout the world, while raising his status in Japan to superstar. Gold medalist , Nobu is heard here in a captivating all-Chopin programme of his competition performances.

“Through all three rounds, he played with unfailing assurance, and his unforced, utterly natural Chopin E-minor Piano Concerto was an oasis of loveliness amid too much point-making from other contestants.” Dallas Morning News

The disc features new recordings of the Chopin concertos performed on period instruments, documenting two outstanding artistic moments in the festival Chopin and his Europe. Dang Thai Son, winner of the Tenth Fryderyk Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw, is accompanied by Frans Brüggen’s Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century—a legendary ensemble restoring to music its authentic sound.