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Track(s) taken from CDS44351/66

Lento con gran espressione in C sharp minor 'Nocturne', KKIVa/16

composer
No 20; composed as a wedding gift for the composer's sister Ludwika in 1830; published in 1875

Garrick Ohlsson (piano)
Recording details: October 1994
Performing Arts Center, Purchase College, State University of New York, USA
Produced by Adam Abeshouse
Engineered by Adam Abeshouse
Release date: November 2008
Total duration: 4 minutes 46 seconds

Cover artwork: Frédéric Chopin in concert at the Hotel Lambert, Paris (1840). Antar Teofil Kwiatowski (1809-1891)
Bibliothèque Polonaise, Paris / Archives Charmet / Bridgeman Images
 

Other recordings available for download

Angela Hewitt (piano)
Stephen Hough (piano)
Lívia Rév (piano)
James Rhodes (piano)

Reviews

‘Hyperion's big deal … Ohlsson is a powerful and committed player, and is afforded very good sound by the engineers … this is almost certainly how these pieces were played in Chopin's time’ (The Mail on Sunday)

‘This is an oustanding achievement, which any genuine Chopin lover and student of Romantic music should own … a landmark in the recording of Chopin's music … Garrick Ohlsson and Hyperion deserve the greatest success in bringing this important undertaking to such a consistently impressive conclusion’ (International Record Review)

‘An attractively priced box set … Ohlsson is in a class of his own’ (Pianist)

‘The collaborative works receive particularly rewarding performances … Ohlsson arguably offers more consistent artistry than Biret, Ashkenazy, Magaloff, and Harasiewicz’ (Classics Today)

‘Garrick Ohlsson’s complete survey of everything Chopin wrote for piano (including chamber music, songs, and for piano and orchestra) will delight the completist and the Chopin connoisseur. Ohlsson (who won the Chopin International Piano Competition in 1970) gives us accounts of this wondrous repertoire in weighty and commanding style, aristocratic and impulsive (but not lacking light and shade or contemplative contrasts) and, at times, very sensitive and searching. These vivid recordings were made in the second half of the 1990s and have previously appeared on the Arabesque label. They now sit very well in Hyperion’s catalogue’ (Classical Source)
A wedding gift composed for Chopin’s sister Ludwika in 1830, the ‘Lento con gran espressione’ in C sharp minor wraps its sober nocturne-like principal theme around a livelier middle section that is a self-pastiche, with themes borrowed from two of Ludwika’s favourite compositions by her brother, the Piano Concerto No 2 in F minor and the song ‘Życzenie’.

from notes by Jeffrey Kallberg © 2021

Cadeau de mariage composé en 1830 pour la sœur de Chopin, Ludwika, le «Lento con gran espressione» en ut dièse mineur enroule son thème principal sobre dans le style d’un nocturne autour d’une section centrale plus animée qui est un autopastiche, avec des thèmes empruntés à deux des compositions que Ludwika préférait dans l’œuvre de son frère, le Concerto pour piano nº 2 en fa mineur et la mélodie «Życzenie».

extrait des notes rédigées par Jeffrey Kallberg © 2021
Français: Marie-Stella Pâris

„Lento con gran espressione“ in cis-Moll war ein Hochzeitsgeschenk, das Chopin 1830 für seine Schwester Ludwika komponierte. Hier umhüllt das nüchterne nocturneartige Hauptthema einen lebhafteren Mittelteil, der ein Pasticcio eigener Themen ist. Diese Themen stammen aus dem Klavierkonzert Nr. 2 in f-Moll und dem Lied „Życzenie“—zwei von Ludowikas Lieblingswerken der Kompositionen ihres Bruders.

aus dem Begleittext von Jeffrey Kallberg © 2021
Deutsch: Viola Scheffel

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