Ich habe jetzt noch mal festgestellt, dass Chopin wirklich einer der ganz Großen ist. Er hat die Klaviertechnik revolutioniert und kann mit dem Klavier unglaublich viel aussagen. Er hat eine Fragilität, Schönheit und Persönlichkeit in der Melodik, die mich am ehesten an Mozart erinnert - wo man bei Mozart sagt, das ist Weinen und Lachen gleichzeitig. Etwas Ähnliches gibt es bei Chopin.
(Auszug aus dem Exclusive-Interview für dieses Album)Born in the German town of Düren in 1970, Lars Vogt has established himself as one of the leading pianists
of his generation. By winning Second Prize at Leeds International Piano Competition in 1990 he launched
a remarkable career that has led him to concertize in all the major classical music venues worldwide. Vogt
not only performs as solo pianist and as a chamber musician, but also increasingly as a conductor. He
took up the post of Music Director of Royal Nothern Sinfonia in Newcastle (England).
Highlights of Lars Vogt's 2015/2016 season include concerts with the LSO, CBSO, Schottish Chamber and
Hallé, with the Bavarian Radio SO, Orchestre de Paris etc. In the US he played with Baltimore Symphony
and St. Louis Symphony and toured extensively with the Tetzlaff siblings as well as in Japan.
With his passion for chamber music, Lars Vogt has become the professional partner and friend of many
first-rate musicians in the classical music field. As the founder and artistic director of SPANNUNGEN
Chamber Music Festival he has fulfilled a long-held dream. In 2007 he received the Annual German Music
Critics Circle Award for the collected live recordings of Heimbach performances from 1999 to 2006.
As an EMI recording artist, Lars Vogt made fifteen discs for the label, including collaborations with the
Berliner Philharmoniker under Claudio Abbado and with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
under Simon Rattle. Recent releases on other labels include Mozart piano concertos with Frankfurt RSO
(Paavo Järvi), a solo CD with works by Liszt and Schumann, and two duo CDs and a successsful trio
CD. Especially his recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations received rave reviews.
Lars Vogt is the founder of “Rhapsody In School”, an acclaimed educational initiative with important
reper-cussions in Germany and abroad. The project presented its featured artists as “Rhapsody In
Concert” for the first time at the Konzerthaus in Berlin in 2012. That same year, Lars Vogt was appointed
Professor of Piano at the Hannover Conservatory of Music.
Lars died September 5th 2022
Frédéric Chopin is one of the greatest composers of the Romantic piano tradition. He was a master in making the small form great. His ballades, mazurkas, polonaises, preludes, etudes and nocturnes all belong to the most popular standard works for piano ever written.
As a child prodigy, Chopin grew up in a middle class family, who lived among the literati of Warsaw. When in 1830 the November Uprising broke out in Poland, the twenty year old Chopin stayed in Vienna. He became an exile and never returned to his mother country. He eventually settled in Paris.
He avoided public concerts, but he did like performing in small settings, such as salons and at home for his friends. This way, Chopin built a reputation as an exceptional pianist, teacher and composer.
Chopin brought a unique synthesis between the Viennese bravado and the French/English lyric style. Even though his pieces often are technically very demanding, the focus was always on creating a lyric expression and poetic atmosphere. He invented the instrumental ballade, and brought salongenres to a higher level with his many innovations and refinements.