The multi-faceted New York-based Japanese pianist and composer Hayato Sumino turns his gaze on Chopin, the composer who means the most to him. It was Sumino’s sensational performances at the 2021 International Chopin Competition where he was a semi-finalist that first brought the young musician to wider international attention. In Chopin Orbit, Sumino pairs six of his original compositions with …

Deutsche Grammophon presents a live album by Eric Lu, winner of this year’s 19th International Chopin Piano Competition, recorded earlier this year. The album captures highlights from Lu’s performances in various rounds of one of the most prestigious competitions in the world. A graduate of Curtis Institute, Eric Lu became the first pianist to win the International Chopin Piano Competition …

Cellist Louise Dubin is a renowned performer and champion of the music of cellist-composer Auguste Franchomme (1808-1884). Following her acclaimed album The Franchomme, which included world premiere recordings of works by Franchomme and Chopin that she discovered in archives in France, Dubin presents her new album featuring cello duos by Franchomme, Fauré, and contemporary composer Philippe Hersant with Julia Bruskin …

Lang Lang’s highly anticipated new album Piano Book 2 brings together iconic classical works, new contemporary pieces, and themes from film and TV scores, anime, and video games. It offers 32 miniature gems for all generations — spanning composers such as Bach, Chopin, Liszt, and Rachmaninoff to Tony Ann, Yu-Peng Chen, Ludovico Einaudi, and Joe Hisaishi. Also including music from …

On his ninth album on the Decca label, internationally renowned British pianist Benjamin Grosvenor celebrates Chopin’s genius with two of his most profound and contrasting works: the Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor and the Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor. Composed five years apart, these masterpieces showcase the range of Chopin’s emotional and musical brilliance. Grosvenor comments, …

French harpsichordist and fortepianist Justin Taylor is celebrated for his stylish interpretations of early music. Keen to match the works he tackles with the most appropriate historical instruments, Taylor presents a program of intimate Chopin miniatures on a Pleyel pianino. The pianino, a small upright piano of six and a half octaves that was only made between 1835 and 1842, …

Pablo Ferrández describes his Moonlight Variations program as “night followed by day.” The latest album from the star Spanish cellist is a realization of his dream to record Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations, the centerpiece of the program, recorded here with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra led by Martin Fröst. The orchestra also joins Ferrández for his own transcription of the “Song to …

On his new album Canadian virtuoso pianist Jan Lisiecki brings the diverse sounds of the prelude to life, illustrating the genre’s potential to be more than just a curtain-raiser to something else. Frédéric Chopin’s extraordinary 24 Preludes Op. 28 are inspiration and centerpiece of this recording. For Lisiecki, Chopin was a “master of the short form” who “brought the prelude …

On her debut solo album, pianist Jeneba Kanneh-Mason takes listeners on a journey that explores connections across different composers’ sound worlds – whether they met, influenced each other, or simply existed in resonance. From Claude Debussy, Frédéric Chopin and Alexander Scriabin to Florence Price, Margaret Bonds and William Grant Still, Jeneba presents a program which is also very personal to …