Chopin / Weder / Berliner Camerata - Chopin: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Andrea Immer - 14 Waltzes / Piano Sonata #3 [COMPACT DISCS] date 10/27/2009

In their very first recording together, the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and pianist Charles Richard-Hamelin render Frédéric Chopin's concertos for piano and orchestra, two vibrant and poetic works that the composer wrote in his early 20s. Charles Richard-Hamelin is impressive with his extremely refined playing and the OSM, under the direction of Kent Nagano, offers wonderfully fluid performances that are charged with contagious energy. Charles Richard-Hamelin is a silver medalist and laureate of the Krystian Zimerman Prize at the 2015 International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw. He stands out as one of the most important musicians of his generation. In 2014, he also won second prize at the Concours musical international de Montreal and third prize at the Seoul International Music Competition in South Korea. Charles is the recipient of the Order of Arts and Letters of Quebec and the prestigious Career Development Award offered by the Women's Musical Club of Toronto.

Chopin's compositional oeuvre consists almost exclusively of solo piano works. They include very few of the sonatas and other cyclic forms preferred by composers of the Viennese Classical school. The majority are various one-movement pieces, many of which are still standard works. There are preludes, impromptus, fantasies, etudes, nocturnes, ballades, scherzos, rondeau and stylized dance forms. The latter include waltzes and especially polonaises and mazurkas from Chopin's native Poland. The Piano Concertos in E Minor, Op. 11 and in F Minor, Op. 21 for a small but important exception to the solo rule.