| Maurizio Pollini | Piano |
The legendary pianist performs a personal selection of pieces by two of early romanticism’s greatest composers for the instrument: Schumann and Chopin.
Maurizio Pollini opens with the intimate sound-world of Schumann’s Arabeske, following it with the impassioned outpourings of the Fantasie in C.
This endlessly imaginative and virtuosic work is essentially a musical love-letter to the pianist and composer Clara Wieck, whom Schumann later married.
The Chopin selection brings together examples of pieces in some of the genres for which the composer is best loved.
Prime among these are the Polish folk dances that inspired him throughout his musical life, the mazurka and the polonaise.
The Berceuse is a meditative piece based on one harmonic pattern, delicate figuration dreaming above.
The group is completed by one of the composer’s powerful sonatas.