Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849) was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the early Romantic period. He wrote almost exclusively for the piano and remains one of its defining poetic voices.
Born near Warsaw and trained there, he left Poland as a young man and settled in Paris, where he earned his living mainly as a composer and teacher and gave only rare public concerts.
Nearly all his music is for solo piano. He shaped the instrumental ballade as a genre and transformed the mazurka, nocturne, polonaise, waltz, étude, prélude, impromptu, scherzo and piano sonata. Two early piano concertos are among the few works with orchestra. The writing is exacting at the keyboard yet prized for refinement, singing line and depth of feeling, drawing on Polish dance and song as much as on the classical tradition.
Frédéric Chopin is featured on the following titles
Geoffrey Tozer in Concert: Canberra 1987
This live recording of pianist Geoffrey Tozer was made in June 1987, during a series of four recitals marking his twenty-fifth anniversary as a performer.
Chopin Showcase
Ian Holtham, piano. The genesis of this recording was to assemble a number of the composer’s most attractive and original works as a mark of homage to one of the most outstandingly innovative and important composers for the piano who has ever lived.
Chopin: Complete Ballades and Scherzi
Having successfully recorded Chopin's complete études, pianist Ian Holtham turns to the four ballades and four scherzi: eight large-scale works among the composer's most individual, characteristic and dramatic pieces.
The Chopin Collection
Rita Reichman's early studies with Mieczysław Horszowski and Jorge Bolet place her in a direct teaching line from Chopin. That heritage gives her playing of these piano masterworks uncommon integrity and authority.
Ronald Farren-Price Plays Chopin
With a virtuosity that has become the hallmark of his performing career, Farren-Price pays tribute to the creative genius of Frédéric Chopin in this carefully selected programme.
Études
Ian Holtham, piano. Chopin’s twenty-four Études, Op. 10 and Op. 25: perfect examples of their genre, wonderfully innovative in texture and uncompromisingly challenging in technical difficulty.
Chopin: The Nocturnes
Pianist Nancy Tsou (pronounced "Zo") brings rare intensity to Chopin's nocturnes. She hears in this night music what few performers catch, and a lifelong devotion to the composer shapes every phrase.
Compositions by Frédéric Chopin also appear on
Geoffrey Tozer in Concert: Takapuna 1996
A live 1996 concert from Takapuna captures Geoffrey Tozer with the Auckland Sinfonietta in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 27, framed by Chopin, Medtner, Schnabel, Gluck, Liszt and Bach.
Timeless
The title Timeless marks Tamara Smolyar’s personal reading of classic piano works she has lived with since childhood, offered for family and listeners alike, and the music’s power to cross generations and cultures.
With Tenderness, With Fire
Ronald Farren-Price encores his hugely popular Reflections with this solo recital, ranging from the sublime beauty of a Beethoven Adagio to the thundering splendour of Prokofiev’s Toccata.
Reflections
Internationally acclaimed pianist Ronald Farren-Price offers superb performances of some of the greatest music written for the piano, in a wide-ranging recital of favourite short works.
Kevin Kanisius Suherman presents Schimmel Konzert 219
Kevin Kanisius Suherman presents the new Schimmel Konzert 219 concert grand in a recital that sets Romantic and early twentieth-century piano works beside his own arrangements of Indonesian song.
Kevin Kanisius Suherman plays Schimmel Konzert 280
Young pianist Kevin Kanisius Suherman presents a full recital of Schumann’s Carnaval, Liszt, Chopin and Beethoven, recorded on the new Schimmel Konzert 280 concert grand.
Silver: Celebrating 25 Years
Pot-Pourri marks twenty-five years with Silver, a seventh album that mixes contemporary classics, Broadway, and opera into one sparkling programme.
Kevin Kanisius Suherman plays Schimmel Konzert 213
For more than a century Schimmel pianos have delighted pianists and listeners. Here young pianist Kevin Suherman presents a recital of well-loved works chosen to display the Schimmel Konzert 213 concert grand.
Team of Pianists presents the Schimmel K 256
Australia’s Team of Pianists inaugurates Schimmel’s Artist Collection on the new K 256 concert grand, with Brahms duets, Romantic and Impressionist solos, Saint-Saëns with clarinet, and Carl Vine.
Sparkling Keys
Sparkling Keys celebrates the creative partnership of the National Trust and the Team of Pianists. Over a decade that partnership produced Twilight Chamber Music at Rippon Lea and concerts at Como, Labassa, Illawarra and Barwon Park.
Pianists of Excellence
The Team of Pianists is acclaimed in Europe and Australia for vitality and freshness of technique. This recital presents solo piano works by Haydn, Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, Brahms and Sculthorpe, played by four of its members.