This Chandos recording uses 24-bit / 96 kHz technology, which offers a dynamic range up to 48 dB greater and 256 times the resolution of standard 16-bit recordings.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Musicologist John Rink suggests that Chopin may have intended the Allegro de concert, Op. 46, as a political statement, to be played upon his triumphant return to a free Warsaw.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Chopin did not aim to reflect existing folk music in his Mazurkas; instead, he invented his own musical image of Poland.
Performer Biography
Louis Lortie, the French-Canadian pianist on this recording, won First Prize in the Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition in 1984.
Compositional Technique
The Polonaise in F sharp minor, Op. 44, features a full-scale Mazurka embedded within its middle section, a mixture of genres that became a hallmark of Chopin's later works.
Compositional Technique
Chopin's early Mazurkas, like those in Op. 7, confounded pianists with their quirky melodies, strange harmonies, odd rhythms, and irregular phrase lengths.
Composition History
The Allegro de concert, Op. 46, originated from an embryonic third piano concerto that Chopin tried to sell to publishers in 1834.
