Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11 - download (MP3 & FLAC)

Shura Cherkassky (1909–1995) enjoyed a long career of over seventy years, rising to the forefront of internationally acclaimed concert pianists, first in America (where his family emigrated to escape the Russian Revolution), and after 1961 in London, where he lived until his death in 1995.

A pupil of the legendary Josef Hofmann at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, Cherkassky made his concert debut in Baltimore at the age of eleven, touring Australia and South Africa in 1925, and thereafter building up what was almost an obsession for foreign travel as he satisfied an incessant demand for festival appearances, solo and concerto recitals. He moved to California in the 1940s, appearing at the Hollywood Bowl with Sir John Barbirolli and Leopold Stokowski, and after the war, he developed his second, European career, scoring an outstanding success in Hamburg in 1946 and in London, following his acclaimed Wigmore Hall recital in March 1957.

Although he had an enormous repertoire stretching from Bach to Berio, the highpoints of Cherkassky’s career for many remain his interpretations of the concertos of fellow Russian composers like Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov, and he is now classed alongside Horowitz and Rubinstein as a legendary and sensitive re-interpreter of the nineteenth-century Romantic repertory.

Cherkassky’s phenomenal virtuosity, colour range, imagination and spontaneity made him the ideal Chopin interpreter, though he never commercially recorded the two Chopin Concertos, so this is an important addition to his CD discography.

These live performances from the 1980s present Cherkassky at his most spontaneous and charismatic. As Robert Orledge has written in his booklet notes, “but if purists may now view some of his interpretations as idiosyncratic, there is still no denying that we are in the presence of a first-rate musician who understood better than many pianists what Chopin’s harmony and voice-leading were about, and who could make what are early works sound like monuments to his mature genius.” Superbly remastered in excellent stereo sound.

Chilean pianist Claudio Arrau (1903–1991) was described at various times as ‘Prince’, ‘Emperor’ and ‘King’ of the keyboard, conveying something of the awe in which he was held.

Few artists of any generation prompted such consistent praise, a pianist who embraced virtually every part of the repertoire, including marathon cycles of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin and Liszt.

Both these broadcast recordings are sourced from the original WDR tapes and not from dubious copies (Chopin Concerto) and have been remastered to a very high standard. In Chopin’s E minor Concerto, Arrau is partnered by Otto Klemperer, another legendary titan in this rare 1954 recording.

Here they create a musical place where there is no sense of an early lightweight alternative to Chopin’s later works. Critic Jed Distler wrote: “There is an emotional freshness and freedom from clichés that draws me into the playing, particularly in the vibrancy and note-to-note intensity of his best live performances. Idealised or not, Arrau's playing boasts a vibrancy and forward-moving sweep that sharply contrasts to his relatively measured studio recording”.

The Beethoven Piano Concerto No.4 shows Arrau playing with great freedom in this ‘live’ account from 1959 following his first studio recording in 1955. This recording appears for the very first time on CD.

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.

Anda was a prominent pianist in the fifties and sixties. These recordings of Chopin Piano Concerto No.1, Schumann Piano Concerto and Brahms Piano Concerto No.2 have never been released before in any format. He was notoriously camera-shy but interestingly, the booklet includes a series of photographs.

PentaTone is proud to present their first release featuring the spectacular new pianist Sa Chen. Already a star in her native China, Sa Chen has won the Leeds Piano Competition (1994) The Chopin Piano Competiton (1996) and the Van Cliburn in 2005.

This SACD comes packaged with a DVD featuring Sa Chen interviewed by James Jolly (Editor in Chief of Gramophone) and footage from the recording sessions showing one complete movement from each concerto. Sa Chen will be featured as “One To Watch” (special page in Gramophone, November issue) and also BBC Music Magazine. We are all aware that Deutsche Gramophone is releasing an album comprising exactly the same works performed by Lang Lang. Actually it is an interesting phenomenon that two young Chinese artists record the same works and we hope and expect that the media will compare both albums.