FRYDERYK CHOPIN (1810-1849)
The works for piano and orchestra

Piano Concerto in E minor, op. 11

Piano Concerto in F minor, op. 21

Variations in Bb major on “Là ci darem”, op. 2

Fantasy on Polish Airs in A major, op. 13

Rondo à la krakowiak in F major, op. 14

Andante spianato & Grande Polonaise brillante in Eb major, op. 22

Interviews with Nelson Goerner, Kevin Kenner, Janusz Olejniczak and Marc Destrubé

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About this DVD

On February 26, 2010 a historic concert took place in Warsaw, the birthplace of Fryderyk Chopin: during the course of that single evening all the works written by this composer for piano with orchestra were performed. And these with participants all of the highest quality: the pianists, the orchestra and the conductor as well as the best possible instruments for such a special occasion. Furthermore, the event took place under the auspices of the ever-active Fryderyk Chopin Institute, with the knowledge and experience of engineers from Polish Radio and with the creativity of the film-maker Phil Grabsky, whose cameras were placed amongst the musicians of the orchestra. All this enabled the full magic of a historic event to be captured in both image and sound.

Playing an Érard piano dating from 1849, the pianists Nelson Goerner, Kevin Kenner and Janusz Olejniczak, alongside the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century and Frans Brüggen, each performed one of the six works which the young Chopin, still at that time in Warsaw, composed in order for them to be displayed before the demanding public of his own country. With such works Chopin’s fame as a great piano virtuoso was to become established elsewhere. Performances of the two famous Concertos, in E minor and F minor, are joined here by the less-famous but notwithstanding highly-attractive and beautiful works, such as the Variations on “Là ci darem la mano”, a theme taken from Mozart’s Don Giovanni, or the Fantasy on Polish Airs. Completing the film of this event is a series of interviews with the soloists, and with Marc Destrubé, the orchestra’s leader.