Chopin: Waltz No. 2 in A flat major 'Grande Valse Brillante', Op. 34 No. 1

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has been due to the fact that it was one of the last recordings to be made under the old acoustic process which was superseded the year the work was issued.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.

Chopin holds a pre-eminent place in Pollini's career; in 1960 he was awarded the first prize at the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw and appeared in the same year at La Scala, Milan, playing Chopin's First Piano Concerto under Sergiu Celibidache. This was the start of his extraordinary musical career. Despite this huge success, Pollini ceased performing Chopin in order not to become stamped as a mere Chopin interpreter. But he returned to him many times later

Maurizio Pollini says that Chopin composed almost exclusively masterpieces and that he didn't tolerate music that had no thinking behind it. After the successful release of the complete Chopin Nocturnes in 2005 (Echo Award, Grammy, Victoires de la Musique Classique Award), the Italian maestro again turns his attention to Chopin: he has re-recorded the famous Sonata no. 2 in B flat minor, op. 35 (recorded in 1984 and released in 1986) and the Ballade no. 2 in F (recorded and released in 1999) and added the Mazurkas op. 33, Waltzes op. 34 and Impromptu no. 2 in F sharp major, op. 36. All of these works were composed in a relatively late phase of Chopin’s career (1834–1839) and display the great variety of his art

The message is simple: one of the greatest pianists of our times interprets Chopin, a composer that moves both classical music connoisseurs as well as a wider audience. As Pollini says: "I play Chopin more freely than I did in my youth, or at the time of the Chopin competition. I like my old recordings, but some of them strike me today as rather straight." Reason enough to make classical-music fans curious to hear how Pollini's Chopin sounds nowadays

Pollini’s Nocturnes sold + 91.000 units worldwide and achieved Gold status in Italy

Josef Hofmann was one of the greatest pianists of any age. His unique abilities incorporated a technique second to none, and a clarity and pureness of tone that has probably never been heard since his death.

Always in total command of everything he played, Hofmann presented each work with an impression of complete facility of execution.

All works recorded in New York City