Chopin turns out to be the missing ingredient in the ice-dancing tandem’s Quest for Gold….

[Tanith] Belbin and [Ben] Agosto are the most successful dance team the US has had, and the Olympic silver medalists seem to break new ground every season. But when coach Igor Shpilband suggested they consider a classical piece for this year’s free dance, they worried it might be too much of a stretch.

They turned down some Bach he suggested. When he came back with Chopin, though, they agreed to try it, and the flowing, romantic program has turned out to be the perfect showcase for their skills. It highlights their chemistry, expression, and speed, their traditional strengths. But it has also allowed them to show a maturity and depth of emotion they didn’t have three or four years ago.

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Prince of the piano worthy of crown
Albany Times Union – Albany,NY,USA

Hey! It’s another Yundi Li review!

“The 25-year-old piano prince then caught the audience’s attention with his Chopin: four of the Mazurkas, followed by the well-known Nocturne in E flat and “Andante Spianato” and “Grande Polonaise.” The Mazurkas are more relaxed and reflective pieces and quickly showed Yundi is more than a technically proficient virtuoso. He was particularly effective in the fourth number, which recalls the work of Robert Schumann, a friend of the composer.”

The young Chinese musician won the International Chopin Competition some years ago, and has made four recordings for the prestigious Deutsche Gramophon …
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Lang Lang delights, confounds with his individualism
Philadelphia Inquirer – Philadelphia,PA,USA

Hey! It’s another Lang Lang review!

Sure, his recital of Schubert, Bartók, Debussy and Chopin was full of strangely mannered playing. But there’s a trade-off: His ideas, all his own, are convincingly expressed…

.…Here, on this night, marginalization of classical music was a specious myth. After a particularly convulsive and artless reading of Chopin’s Polonaise in A flat major (Op. 53), “Heroic,” an audience of seniors, teens, hipsters, nerds, 20ish Asian girls, aficionados, newbies, and a surprising number of 6- to 9-year-olds jumped to their feet. Whistles and cheers. Flowers. Flashbulbs.

Who else on the classical stage can claim as close a connection with as diverse a public? Right now, maybe no one.
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Chopin Videos:

Artur Rubinstein Plays Chopin Polonaise “Heroic”
By admin
Lovely excerpt from the 1947 movie Carnegie Hall. Great close-ups of Rubinstein’s fingers in action, though the music is quite obviously dubbed…

From picture “Carnegie Hall”. ShareThis.
Next VDO – http://nextvdo.com/

Literary Chopin:

♯Six
By Frederic Francois Chopin(Frederic Francois Chopin)

Another installment from the pianopoet…

[Private//Easily Hackable] I have been thinking about that world again….The world I once called just a passing dream. Traveling in that world, I faded faster than it. It was mostly due to my physical state more so than my mental state …
The piano is his way of life – http://pianopoet.livejournal.com/