Chopin - Piano Concerto 1 [Arrau/ Inbal-London Philharmonic Orchestra]The Chopin Piano Concerti are far from my favourite, deep down Chopin was a poor Composer outside of solo piano music, but there's a certain something about this Piano Concerto, a certain innocence, it certainly doesn't contain anything revolutionary like Beethoven, unique like Mozart, or so purely lyrical like Grieg or Rachmaninov, a pretty straightforward romantic Concerto really, and it's good to hear Arrau playing it.
Claudio Arrau is Chilean, he died 20 years ago, doesn't seem possible where all the time has gone, he was 88, he recorded this work in 1070, this comes from Philips Insignia series, a really good re-issue of their back catalogue, each issue has a picture of the Artist [photo by Christian Steiner], this one has a certain glow about it, dark background / dark jacket, Arrau is dapper in his cravat and pocket handkerchief, the yellow box and lettering is nicely uniform, i like the Insignia series.
Here's Claudio Arrau playing the second movement on YouTube.
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