Chopin News, Reviews, and Previews:

New Recordings of Legendary Pianist
New York Times – United States

This Tuesday privately made recordings of the American pianist William Kapell’s last concerts will finally be available. Sony/BMG is releasing this two-disc set, which has works by Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Bach, Mozart, Mussorgsky, Debussy and Prokofiev. Kapell was one of the great pianists of the mid-20th century when he died at 31 in a plane crash in 1953 while on his way home from a concert tour in Australia. A music lover in Melbourne had recorded radio broadcasts of several of his concerts on acetate discs, some of which made their way in 2004 through an intermediary to Kapell’s widow

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The passionate and powerful piano of Mihaela Ursuleasa
Minnesota Public Radio – Saint Paul,MN,USA

The Romanian pianists visits the studios of Minnesota Public Radio in advance of her recital…hear the story here:

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Dancers celebrate Polish culture, constitution
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review – Pittsburgh,PA,USA

A Steeltown celebration in Heinz Hall of Polish Constitution Day (May 3, 1791)

The music of Poland’s greatest composer, Frederic Chopin, will figure prominently, of course, including an orchestration of his famous “Military Polonaise.” And Migala says the traditional song “May Third” that will be sung has recently been authenticated as by Chopin.

Sunday’s concert also is a celebration of 400 years of Poles in America, dating back to 1608 at the Jamestown settlement in Virginia. Migala acknowledges that their names “have been lost in history but they set up the first factories in America, which made pitch and tar that were useful for trading.”

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Chopin, Preludes Op. 28 and Op. 45, with Three “New” Etudes and two works by Mompou. Alexandre Tharaud (Harmonia Mundi).
The Capital Times – Madison,WI,USA

Review of Alexandre Tharaud’s new Chopin/Mompou disc on Harmonia Mundi…

Speaking of Tharaud, he has just released a volume with the cycle of Chopin preludes as a follow up to his highly acclaimed CD of Chopin waltzes. Once again, Tharaud is well served by his gift as an interpreter of baroque music (J.S. Bach, Couperin and Rameau) on the modern piano. Chopin always had great baroque and classical models in mind, which is why his Romanticism is tempered and moderated compared to, say, Schumann’s….

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