This playlist is quite easy to make. Both EMI and Deutsche Grammophon have release a wonderful set of almost complete works of Chopin, and an excellent 2 CDs highlights, Chopin Gold and Essentinal Chopin. Additionally, I added in four Chopin recordings, two by great masters Horowitz and Rachmaninov, two from young and exciting new Chopinists, Alexandre Tharaud and Ingrid Fliter. In the beginning of the playlist it's probably the best introduction to Chopin on Spotify, Naxos audiobook Life And Works: Frédéric Chopin.
Here's the Spotify playlist: Chopin Bicentennial.
Some interesting links: Chopin for Dummies by Jeremy Denk. Chopin, Rothko, and the bowler hat by Stephen Hough. An NYT article on Chopin and Schumann, the two greatest creators of piano miniatures were born in the same year. And Chopin's Letters on Google Books and Amazon
.Rubinstein's performance of the Scherzo in C sharp minor, Op. 39, one of Chopin's most tragic pieces.
Rare footage from, some might call the greatest interpreter of Chopin and Schumann, Alfred Cortot.
And one last video to cheer you up on this blue Monday:)
Stephen Hough just wrote about the Cortot video in his blog:
ReplyDeletehttp://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/culture/stephenhough/100006895/alfred-cortot-the-poet-speaks-and-plays/
Happy birthday Frédéric Chopin!
ReplyDeleteI heard a live consert from Warsaw earlier on the radio and I really liked it, so I thought I'd find out more about him. I can't believe how great this playlist is! Great introduction, great music. I'll probably keep listening to it for the rest of this evening.
Thank you so much for this, it's really great!
Hi Alfred, nice to see you again! And glad to hear that you enjoyed the playlist.
ReplyDeleteThe live concert from Warsaw you mentioned were both piano concertos: F minor played by Evgeny Kissin and E minor by Nikolai Demidenko. Two of the most beautlful piano concertos, and both were completed before Chopin's 20th birthday.