Chopin: Étude Op. 10 No. 5 in G flat major 'Black Key' - CD

Chopin raised the pedagogic 'study' (etude) to entirely new levels with his Opp. 10 and 25. Virtuoso studies testing the technique of any pianist, there are also incredibly poetic works. Here they are unforgettably played by Nikita Magaloff and the Trois Nouvelles Etudes, three tiny gems that were posthumously published, complete this oeuvre.

The incredible Jan Lisiecki performs both cycles of Chopin’s virtuosic Études. This is the second Deutsche Grammophon release from the young Canadian pianist, and his first-ever studio recital album

Chopin’s Études are among the most challenging and evocative pieces of all the works in the piano repertoire. Jan Lisiecki has just finished recording the Études in the famous Koerner Hall of the Music Conservatory in Toronto. The Royal Conservatory has been involved in the training of many notable artists such as the pianists Glenn Gould and Oscar Peterson

Since a very early age, Magdalena Lisak has been winning top prizes in national and international competitions. One of her most valuable experiences was a course at the Basle Music Academy under Krystian Zimerman. She also honed her skills in masterclasses given by Victor Merzhanov and Leon Fleisher, and in chamber music with members of the Amadeus Quartet. Her interpretations have been recorded for Deutsche Rundfunk, Radio Suisse Romande, Polskie Radio and Telewizja Polska and many more.

IRENE SCHARRER, though perhaps the least remembered of the major Matthay pupils, was the earliest to record, beginning in 1909 at the age of 21.That in itself is a credit to her early fame, which she established through an extrovert, but always musical, virtuosity.

She excelled in such works as the Chopin Etudes, nine of which she recorded, and in other brilliant pieces such as those here by Scarlatti and Liszt, but the poise and refinement of her Chopin nocture or the slow movement of the Mozart sonata reveal another side to her playing that is sadly underrepresented on disc. Her final recording, of the Litolff Scherzo, was also her most famous; in its day it was a best seller and was responsible for putting that work on the musical map. This set reissues for the first time all Scharrer’s electrical recordings and also an example of every work she recorded in the acoustic era (pre 1925) that was not later remade as an electrical recording. For completeness, a discography of all her other acoustic recordings is also included.

Chopin‘s oeuvre is extraordinarily manifold. It contains the whole spectrum of feelings that can stir the human soul: from the most subtle and profoundly personal emotions in the nocturnes and mazurkas to those grandiose feelings reflecting the epic of a whole nation in the polonaises and sonatas. Listening to his music is for us like experiencing a miracle. For a born Chopin interpreter is not someone who plays a lot of Chopin, but someone who finds that special “Chopin quality” in his own soul which enables him to discover in his interpretation of Chopin what no-one has discovered before him, but what is in harmony with Chopin’s world, Chopin’s poetry. Pianist Boris Bloch has a very familiar relationship to Chopin: “Today Chopin represents for me that ivory tower where I seek refuge in these troubled times in which we live.”