Chopin: Scherzo No. 3 in C sharp minor, Op. 39

Sophie Cashell, the winner of this year’s BBC talent show Classical Star, launches her recording career with ‘Debut’. This piano recital disc will be available through Universal Classics and Jazz (UCJ), the UK’s leading classical label.

The recital comprises some of Sophie’s favourite piano music, pieces that have been influential in her career so far. Sophie, currently studying at the Royal Academy of Music, won over the Classical Star judges (Charles Hazelwood, Jason Lai, Chi-Chi Nwanoku and Steve Abbott) with an impressive performance of Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto no. 2.

The album was recorded in the Théâtre St Bonnet, Bourges, France, a theatre built just two years ago in an authentic 19th Century salon style similar to those where Chopin and Liszt would have played. The Gothic cathedral in Bourges provided Sophie with further inspiration, hence the choice of Debussy’s La Cathedrale Engloutie which appears on the disc.

Profil’s Frédéric Chopin series has so far featured the Ballads and Impromptus (Vol. 1), Waltzes (Vol. 2), Polonaises (Vol. 3) and the Etudes (Vol. 4), and now the next in the series continues with a selection of more of his finest works.

His previous volumes have all been well received by the press and Eugene Mursky has proved that he is a first-rate pianist definitely worthy of his international competition success. He was awarded 1st Prize in the prestigious World Piano Competition, 1994, and also the Chopin Prize for the best Chopin interpretation.

“Mursky has shown himself to be an artist of potentially wonderful talent.” The Daily Telegraph