Chopin: Piano Concerto No.1 Olga Kern

• 1 I. Allegro maestoso 20:05
• 2 II. Romanze: Larghetto 09:56
• 3 III. Rondo: Vivace 10:15
• 4 Fantaisie in F minor, Op.49 14:10
• 5 Bolero, Op.19 07:19
• 6 Fantaisie-Impromptu, Op.66 05:24
• 7 Polonaise in A-flat major, Op.53 06:51
• Total Runtime 01:14:00

Info for Chopin: Piano Concerto No.1

In his art at its finest, Chopin represents the marriage of public and private, are conciliation of extrovert and introspective. Often, in both solo compositions and concerted works, contemplative pages balance and bank the fires of virtuosity, and this potent amalgam helped make the composer into society’s darling and a favored pianist of the Parisian tout le monde. With a gift to not just create stylistic polarities but effortlessly to meld them – technical extravaganzas can have moments of pathos, and inward-looking works are rarely lacking in panache – he was not merely poet or showman, but both of these at once.

Chopin’s breakthrough work, his passport from the provinces to Paris, was the Piano Concerto No. 1, in E minor (1828). Its idyllic slow movement shines with lyrical ardor, with sentiments to be later explored in the Nocturnes and other miniatures, and its finale is a rousing krakowiak, but the first movement pushes boundaries. Opening with an assertive orchestral introduction of symphonic sweep, it forsakes conventional sonata form with its customary expectations for a more idiosyncratic scenario that reveals itself gradually, incrementally, over time.

If the movement’s plan was in some ways experimental (for more, see Chopin, Jim Samson, p. 49, Oxford University Press, 1996), Tovey, ever astute, called it “suicidal” (Donald Francis Tovey, Essays in Musical Criticism, vol. 3, p. 103, Oxford University Press, London, 1936), and though his observation has merit, we are struck less by the movement’s blemishes than by “the beauties of (its) individual moments… for particular felicities of melody, harmony, and texture which we identify retrospectively as Chopinesque…”

“Judging by this recording of a perennial favourite, Kern has more than enough virtuosity, poise and interpretative charm to enchant British audiences.” (The Observer)

Olga Kern, piano
Warsaw Philharmonic
Antoni Wit, conductor

Olga Kern
the striking young Russian Gold Medal winner of the 2001 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition - whose performance of the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3 made her the first woman to achieve this distinction in over 30 years - made her New York City debut in Carnegie's Zankel Hall in May, 2004. Eleven days later she returned to New York to play at Carnegie again, this time on the stage of the Isaac Stern Auditorium at the invitation of Carnegie Hall.

Ms. Kern is a magnetic performer with one of the most prodigious piano techniques of any young pianist. This season, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and Van Cliburn Foundation will honor Ms. Kern’s Cliburn victory 10 years ago with a co-presentation of her talents in March and April of 2011.

Also this season, Olga will perform with the symphonies of Detroit, Anchorage, Nashville, Dallas, Virginia, St. Louis, Rochester, Pittsburgh, Madison, Johnson City, Syracuse and Colorado. She has also been invited to perform at Longwood Gardens, the Sanibel Music Festival, the Winter Park Bach Festival, the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, and Drake University. In February 2012, Olga will perform during a special North American recital tour with violinist Vladimir Spivakov, their first outside of Europe.

Ms. Kern complete discography is available on Harmonia Mundi, and her highly anticipated Chopin Sonatas CD was recently released in 2010.

..."It was her sharp and decisive movements and utterly precise playing (of Rachmaninoff' First Piano Concerto) that truly mesmerized in her debut with the Pittsburgh Symphony."... —Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

…”Olga Kern was an absolute whiz at the piano.” … —The New York Times

…"This immensely talented artist turned in a performance that was dignified, controlled and almost majestic... her rubato was elegant and natural. The highlight of the afternoon was the concerto's celebrated Adagio, where Spivakov created a gossamer halo around Kern's luscious phrases.”… —The Washington Post

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