CHOPIN – Jubilarian 2010 – his 200th anniversary - on a contemporary fortepiano

“Of all Chopin’s works, I find that the two Ballades featured here (op.23 & op.52) and the twenty-four Preludes are some of his most impressive pieces for solo piano. The order chosen here reflects the way I experience these works:
The Ballade in G minor literally tells a story – with eloquence, rhetoric and associations of ideas.
But it ends in chaos and catastrophe.
That drama is followed by a wave of supposed happiness at the beginning of the Preludes op.28; however, it immediately dries up with the death knell in Prelude No. 2. The ensuing cycle confronts us with the lofty flights and abysmal depths of human existence. The last prelude in D minor ends with a final plunge and three shattering blows.
Once more we are faced with destruction and death.
Then we hear the Ballade op.52 – a reminiscence as if from afar, offering some sort of comfort. It almost sounds as if it is “not of this world”.
This music is agitated, too – but in the end it seems to cast a tranquilly detached eye on everything that has gone before.” © Sheila Arnold

Thanks to the WDR broadcast station Cologne it was possible to use this Érard fortepiano (highly and perfectly maintained) from the WDR collection for this recording session. The Érard’s year of manufacture (1839) is close to the time of origin of this recording’s main work, the 24 Préludes op. 28.
Obviously this album will contribute, to read the art of Chopin’s style and works in a new light; not only by the thrilling grasps of Sheila Arnold a born Indian, now German pianist, who grapples intensively with the historical instruments on all levels and therefore producing a different sound, a complete new dimension to look at the pieces.

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This release was published on openPR.