Adaptation of the cover illustration for Franz Bendel's Hommage à Chopin, Trautwein, Berlin (1867). CDA67803 Recording details: August 2009 Potton Hall, Dunwich, Suffolk, United Kingdom Produced by Jeremy Hayes Engineered by Ben Connellan Release date: February 2010 Total duration: 78 minutes 6 seconds GRAMOPHONE EDITOR'S CHOICE CLASSIC FM CD OF THE WEEK DIAPASON D'OR PREIS DER DEUTSCHEN SCHALLPLATTENKRITIK "The combination of top-flight artist, superb recording quality and truly imaginative, attractive programming seems quintessentially Hyperion. Yet another winner." - MusicWeb International, October 2010 "On this magnificent and richly enterprising disc you can hear Chopin's idiom refracted, as it were, through the prism of several richly diverse personalities...All of these multifaceted offerings...show Jonathan Plowright as beguiling in his intimacy as he is magisterial in virtuosity." - Gramophone Magazine, April 2010 "Most of these pieces are light, even frothy morceaux, and Plowright does not overstate the musical case for them beyond their obvious delights of refinement and dexterity. But he balances them with two superb sets of variations on Chopin themes: Busoni's late Ten Variations on the C minor Prelude and Frederico Mompou's substantial work on another Prelude, Op. 28 No. 7. Mompou's 11th variation is the sublimest track on the disc. In places like these that Plowright shows his real qualities as a virtuoso, especially his clarity of texture and instinct for phrasing." - BBC Music Magazine, March 2010 "Franz Bendel’s homage is a stately piece that might have been composed by the master himself, whereas Tchaikovsky’s, though written quickly “for want of money,” is a delightfully upbeat mazurka. The longer works, all of which are played beautifully by Jonathan Plowright, include the three mazurkas by Lennox Berkeley; Villa-Lobos’s wonderful, and wonderfully virtuosic, tribute; and the Mompou, which the composer also recorded, as did Jordi Maso for Naxos. The pianist could have made other choices, including Rachmaninoff’s Variations on a Theme by Chopin. But this mixture of genuinely obscure and slightly less obscure pieces is particularly pleasing, as well as nicely recorded and exquisitely played." - Michael Ullman, Fanfare 9/2010 "This is an imaginative way of marking Chopin’s bicentenary without adding to the already amply stocked CD catalogue of his own works. Jonathan Plowright provides a fascinating conspectus of how Chopin’s example has sparked ideas in others...This disc is a delight." - The Telegraph, February 2010 ***** Works on This Recording 1. Impromptu for Piano by Mily Balakirev ■ Performer: Jonathan Plowright (Piano) ■ Period: Romantic ■ Written: 1907; Russia ■ Notes: Based on Chopin’s Preludes, e♭ and B. 2. Hommage à Chopin, Op. 111 no 1 by Franz Bendel ■ Performer: Jonathan Plowright (Piano) ■ Period: Romantic 3. Stimmungen, Op. 73: no 5, Studie "Hommage à Chopin" by Edvard Grieg ■ Performer: Jonathan Plowright (Piano) ■ Period: Romantic ■ Written: Norway 4. Variations (10) on Chopin's Prelude in c, Op. 22/K 213a by Ferruccio Busoni ■ Performer: Jonathan Plowright (Piano) ■ Period: 20th Century ■ Written: 1922; Berlin, Germany 5. Notturno, Op. 48 no 1 "La réminiscence de Chopin" by Eduard Nápravník ■ Performer: Jonathan Plowright (Piano) ■ Period: Romantic 6. Morceaux (18) for Piano, Op. 72: no 15, Un poco di Chopin by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky ■ Performer: Jonathan Plowright (Piano) ■ Period: Romantic ■ Written: 1893; Russia 7. Souvenir de Chopin by Arthur Honegger ■ Performer: Jonathan Plowright (Piano) ■ Period: 20th Century ■ Written: 1947; France 8. Mazurkas (3) for Piano, Op. 32 no 1 by Lennox Berkeley ■ Performer: Jonathan Plowright (Piano) ■ Period: 20th Century ■ Written: 1949; England 9. Hommage à Chopin by Heitor Villa-Lobos ■ Performer: Jonathan Plowright (Piano) ■ Period: 20th Century ■ Written: 1949; Brazil 10. Variations on a theme by Chopin by Federico Mompou ■ Performer: Jonathan Plowright (Piano) ■ Period: 20th Century ■ Written: 1938-1957; Spain 11. Lanterne magique, Op. 66: no 2, Hommage à Chopin by Benjamin Godard ■ Performer: Jonathan Plowright (Piano) ■ Period: Romantic ■ Written: France 12. Walzermasken: no 7, Profil "Chopin" by Leopold Godowsky ■ Performer: Jonathan Plowright (Piano) ■ Period: 20th Century