CD, Chopin (composer)

Some extremely daring speeds guarantee excitement, pushing the technical limits in what are, of course, despite their generic title (Études , or Studies), so much more than technical exercises,... — BBC Music Magazine, July 2024, 5 out of 5 starsMore…

The Gramophone Good CD Guide awarded this its highest accolade, denoting "an unrivalled version, a cornerstone of the catalogue", adding that "this is surely the greatest, certainly the richest... — Gramophone Magazine, October 2007More…

This is more than a flawless recital played with technical bravura and a born soloist’s confidence. Abduraimov is a major pianist, worth talking about in the same breath as the international... — Fanfare, May/June 2021More…

Nothing in the entire literature of Etudes surpasses Chopin’s Op. 25, and the best interpreters not only clear all the technical hurdles but project the 12 pieces as a progressive sequence.... — BBC Music Magazine, November 2021, 4 out of 5 starsMore…

They are all works requiring formidable technical ability, and pianist Alexander Melnikov brings clarity of touch and virtuoso flair to them all, transferring as if effortlessly from instrument... — BBC Music Magazine, May 2018, 4 out of 5 starsMore…

The sequence works well as a recital-like experience, and also as a vehicle for Hough’s comprehensive mastery of his art...The idiom of his own ‘Vida breve’ Sonata, with its cogent sweep and... — BBC Music Magazine, March 2021, 5 out of 5 stars (Performance) / 4 out of 5 stars (Recording)More…

The solemn Arpeggione is prefigured here by Isserlis’s arrangement of Chopin’s achingly beautiful ‘Nie ma czego trzeba’. Again in this Sonata, the duo offer graceful transparency, lithe refinement... — BBC Music Magazine, November 2018, 5 out of 5 starsMore…

A charm of lullabies, or an excess? If anyone could convince you that mostly slow and soft can work as an album sequence, it would be sonic magician Bertrand Chamayou...Within the narrow compass... — BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 2020, 4 out of 5 starsMore…

Martha Argerich's first commercially released recordings of the Chopin concertos were for DG; No 1 in 1968, No 2 in 1978. Here she revisits both concertos and offers an act of re-creative daring,... — Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010More…

This is a highly considered collection of performances, with close attention paid to phrasing, articulation and voicing. Lapwood has successfully delivered an album that cements her status as... — BBC Music Magazine, November 2023, 4 out of 5 stars (Performance) / 5 out of 5 stars (Recording)More…