2nd Chopin Festival Hamburg 2019 (Live)

Featuring

Tobias Koch
Hélène Tysman
Janusz Olejniczak
Tomasz Ritter
Frédéric Chopin
Robert Schumann

Sergei Rachmaninoff
Karol Kurpiński
Oscar Peterson

Did you know?

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Instruments

The album features three period pianos: an 1847 Pleyel grand, an 1872 Steinway grand, and an 1832 Pleyel cottage piano, alongside two modern 2019 Shigeru Kawai grand pianos.

Composer Biography

Chopin gave both his first and last Paris concerts in the rooms of the Pleyel factory, playing Pleyel grand pianos.

Recording & Production

The Chopin Society Hamburg & Sachsenwald Inc. is the only organization worldwide to vividly compare and contrast music from bygone eras with contemporary sound in this manner.

Performer Biography

Janusz Olejniczak, a pianist on this album, portrayed Chopin himself in Andrzej Żuławski's 1991 film La Note bleue and was the hand double for Adrien Brody in Roman Polanski's 2002 film The Pianist.

Composition History

Chopin composed some parts of his 24 Preludes, Op. 28, on a Pleyel piano model similar to the 1832 Pleyel 'pianino' featured on this album, while in Valldemossa.

Recording & Production

This album captures an experiment from the 2nd Chopin Festival Hamburg 2019, where pianists played works on both original historic instruments and modern grand pianos for comparison.

Instruments

Chopin reportedly exclaimed, 'Pleyel's pianos are the last word in perfection,' upon visiting the Pleyel workshop in Paris, and he maintained a close friendship and business association with Camille Pleyel, the founder's son.