Chopin: Ballade No. 3 in A flat major, Op. 47

Berceuse in D flat major is a performance of poetic playing, inspired lyricism and exceptional clarity: “At his best, he plays more beautifully than any of us” Alfred Brendel

Whenever Kempff tackled Chopin he often created a stir, and this recording bolsters his controversial reputation, confirming his as an individualist who chose to go his own way and eschew traditional approaches.

In recent years York Bowen, the composer, has enjoyed a spectacular revival, but until now his talents as pianist (barring a late recording of his own music for Lyrita) have not been heard since the days of 78s. At the height of his success, in the first decades of the 20th century, Bowen was as much known as pianist as composer and frequently performed at the Proms amongst other things. His first recording, a very rare disc on the Marathon label, was released in 1915, but the bulk of his work was done for Vocalion; after they went bankrupt in 1927 he appears to have made no further 78s. Pride of place must go to Bowen’s Beethoven 4th Piano Concerto. This was the very first recording of the work and its neglect has been due to the fact that it was one of the last recordings to be made under the old acoustic process which was superseded the year the work was issued. Bowen’s pianism is extremely fluent and he plays his own cadenzas! Through all the featured works we hear a pianist who plays in the ‘grand manner’ and that, and his preference for romantic repertoire, reveal him as somewhat atypical of the English pianist of his time. Perhaps his nickname ‘the English Rachmaninov’ did indeed hit the nail on the head.

Alessandra Ammara graduated from the "L. Cherubini" Conservatory of Florence and the Accademia Pianistica of Imola. She honed her talents in some of today's most important music schools, like the International Piano Foundation at Lake Como and the School of Music in Fiesole, with great musicians like Maria Tipo, Dmitri Bashkirov, Leon Fleisher, William Naboré and Fou Ts'ong. She has drawn the attention of the musical world after achieving brilliant results in some of the more important international piano competitions, such as the "G. B. Viotti" in Vercelli, the "J. Iturbi" in Valencia, the "Casagrande" in Terni, the "Van Cliburn" in Fort Worth. In 2000 she was a Laureate of the "Esther Honens" international piano competition in Calgary, Canada. She has collaborated with many great interpreters, including Ingrid Attrot, Rocco Filippini, Alban Gerhardt, Anton Kuerti, Shauna Rolston, the Takacs Quartet, the Sine Nomine Quartet. Since 1999 she regularly plays in piano duo with Roberto Prosseda. Ms. Ammara has recorded a successful CD for the Canadian label "Arktos" with music by Debussy, Scriabin and Chopin. She was chosen to take part in the new complete Chopin edition produced by Brilliant Classics, together with some of the greatest pianists in the world.

Frederick Chopin’s four Ballades are mature works written between 1836 and 1842.after he left his Polish homeland. They represent pure music in its finest form without any suggestive narration, though it is clear that Chopin was inspired by the stories of his native Poland and particularly the poems of Adam Mickiewicz. The Ballades are considered to be some of the finest of Chopin's creations and among the most representative of romantic music. Chopin composed 58 Mazurkas (there seem to be at least another 2 unfinished sketches), and in them you get to know the very heart and soul of his native Poland. Many of his other works of different genres are either inspired by the Mazurka or have parts of Mazurkas within them. Chopin did not invent the mazurka form, however it was he alone who put it on the public stage and refined it into the highest level of music.