If there’s one genre that captures the essence of Chopin, it’s surely the Mazurka. These triple-time dances seem modest on the surface; usually there’s an opening melody, a contrasting middle bit ...

The upcoming semi-finals introduce Chopin’s two mature piano sonatas and his Preludes Op 28 into the competition’s repertoire mix, along with groupings of Mazurkas by opus number. If you’ve read my ...

"Mazurkas Op. 50" is Szymanowski's second such prominent attempt, after the "Preludes Op. 1", to invoke the great Chopin tradition. On this page we present two articles on Karol Szymanowski's Twenty ...

The mazurka, a traditional Polish dance, acts as a siren to Poles far and wide. Janina Fialkowska, born in Canada but half-Polish, says that in playing the mazurkas of Chopin she has been afforded “a ...

The young Korean pianist Klara Min's critically acclaimed CD of Chopin is John Brunning's Drive featured album from 20 May. With her new CD, the outstanding Korean pianist Klara Min surveys 17 of her ...

As his last couple of London recitals have demonstrated, Maurizio Pollini is on magisterial form at the moment, and this carefully planned Chopin sequence, grouping together the works of Opp 34 to 36 ...

This glorious disc confirms Yevgeny Sudbin as one of the most searching and inspired of today’s pianists. Each recording that he produces in his continuing series for BIS seems to reveal a new facet ...

The coming days feature each of the 18th Chopin Competition’s semi-finalists in an uninterrupted 55-minute recital. Their programmes must include the following: a complete set of Mazurkas (either Op ...

Gao's performance commenced the third round auditions on Tuesday morning. Later, he was asked by reporters about his choice of Chopin's pieces, including the Sonata in B minor, Op. 58, and the ...

Though not the most imaginative take on the 21 nocturnes, the French pianist captures Chopin’s music as it was conceived on a superb-sounding 1836 Pleyel Chopin composed 21 nocturnes, 18 of which were ...