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1 CD
✓ in stock |
€ 13.95
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| Label Challenge Classics |
UPC 0608917299625 |
Catalogue number CC 72996 |
Release date 27 September 2024 |
To me, this album is both a personal story and a musical narrative about one of the (piano) composers I find the most fascinating: Frédéric Chopin. I chose a dozen works; twelve of his jewels that represent different stages of his life and that each hold a particular significance for me. I open up this album with the First Impromptu, the first of Chopin's works I was to learn as a young teenager. The album closes with the first piece by Chopin that I heard as a toddler: my mother often played the Waltz, opus 64 no. 1, at home on our dark brown Rippen piano. My mother, who was always so closely involved and supportive from the first time I reached up to the piano as a young girl until my last concert before her untimely death last April.
Für mich ist dieses Album sowohl eine persönliche Geschichte als auch eine musikalische Erzählung über einen der (Klavier-)Komponisten, die mich am meisten faszinieren: Frédéric Chopin. Ich habe ein Dutzend Werke ausgewählt, zwölf seiner Juwelen, die verschiedene Phasen seines Lebens repräsentieren und die für mich jeweils eine besondere Bedeutung haben. Ich eröffne dieses Album mit dem Ersten Impromptu, dem ersten Werk Chopins, das ich als junger Teenager lernen sollte. Das Album schließt mit dem ersten Stück von Chopin, das ich als Kleinkind hörte: Meine Mutter spielte den Walzer, Opus 64 Nr. 1, oft zu Hause auf unserem dunkelbraunen Rippen-Klavier. Meine Mutter, die mich von dem Moment an, als ich mich als kleines Mädchen zum ersten Mal ans Klavier setzte, bis zu meinem letzten Konzert vor ihrem frühen Tod im April letzten Jahres immer sehr eng begleitet und unterstützt hat.
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.
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