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Track(s) taken from CDA67371/2

Impromptu No 3 in G flat major, Op 51

composer
autumn 1842; two versions exist; final version is recorded by Garrick Ohlsson

Angela Hewitt (piano)
Studio Master FLAC & ALAC downloads available
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Recording details: November 2003
Reitstadel, Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz, Germany
Produced by Ludger Böckenhoff
Engineered by Ludger Böckenhoff
Release date: November 2004
Total duration: 5 minutes 48 seconds
 

Other recordings available for download

Garrick Ohlsson (piano)
Pavel Kolesnikov (piano)

Reviews

‘In a catalogue boasting many distinguished Chopin Nocturne cycles, Angela Hewitt's commands attention’ (BBC Music Magazine)

‘One of the most elegant pianists around, the Canadian virtuoso Angela Hewitt interrupts her epic Bach and Couperin cycles for Hyperion to explore some of Chopin's most refined music, the complete Nocturnes and Impromptus. Hewitt's innate sophistication and delicacy of touch are perfectly suited to these exquisite pieces, 25 of them over two discs, by a master of the genre at the height of his fragile powers. Spanning almost his entire creative life, the Nocturnes amount to a remarkable graph of Chopin's emotional maturity, touchingly reflected in the affectionate care Hewitt brings to what sounds like a labour of love’ (The Observer)

‘Hewitt is not given to grand effects, whether an extreme rubato or rude dynamic change. Still, she can play grandly as well, as we hear on her powerful performance of the great Fantaisie-Impromptu in C sharp minor. This new recording of the nocturnes is what Marlon Brando would have called, if he had cared, a contender. It's richly recorded and beautifully played: it has art's final seal’ (Fanfare, USA)

‘Angela Hewitt is a sound buy … the delicacy of touch and manicured precision of the phrasing is a delight’ (The Scotsman)
When Chopin returned to composing impromptus, he circulated them more conventionally through publication. Two of these published impromptus hew closely to the model established by Op 66. Indeed, the Impromptu in A flat major, Op 29, and the Impromptu in G flat major, Op 51, resemble each other closely enough that we may suppose Chopin modelled the later piece on the earlier one: the decorative shapes and animated rhythmic profiles of each principal theme, and conventionally song-like melodies of their central sections all seem cut from the same cloth.

from notes by Jeffrey Kallberg © 2019

Lorsque Chopin recommença à composer des impromptus, il les diffusa de manière plus conventionnelle en les publiant. Deux de ces impromptus publiés se rapprochent tout à fait du modèle établi par l’op.66. En effet, l’Impromptu en la bémol majeur, op.29, et l’Impromptu en sol bémol majeur, op.51, se ressemblent assez pour que l’on puisse supposer que Chopin modela ce dernier sur le premier: les formes décoratives et les profils rythmiques animés de chaque thème principal, comme les mélodies conventionnellement chantantes de leurs sections centrales semblent faits de la même étoffe.

extrait des notes rédigées par Jeffrey Kallberg © 2019
Français: Marie-Stella Pâris

Als Chopin später zum Komponieren von Impromptus zurückkehrte, verbreitete er sie in konventionellerer Weise, indem er sie veröffentlichte. Zwei dieser publizierten Impromptus orientieren sich stark an dem Vorbild von op. 66. Das Impromptu As-Dur, op. 29, und das Impromptu Ges-Dur, op. 51, ähneln einander sogar so sehr, dass man annehmen darf, dass Chopin das spätere Stück dem früheren nachempfand—die verzierten Konturen und lebhaften rhythmischen Profile der jeweiligen Hauptthemen und die konventionellen liedartigen Melodien der Mittelteile scheinen alle aus demselben Holz geschnitzt zu sein.

aus dem Begleittext von Jeffrey Kallberg © 2019
Deutsch: Viola Scheffel

Other albums featuring this work

Chopin: Impromptus, waltzes & mazurkas
Studio Master: CDA68273Studio Master FLAC & ALAC downloads available
Chopin: Preludes & Impromptus
CDH55383Last few CD copies remaining
Chopin: The Complete Works
CDS44351/6616CDs Boxed set (at a special price) — Download only
Chopin: Nocturnes & Impromptus
This album is not yet available for downloadSACDA67371/22CDs Super-Audio CD — Deleted
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