Frédéric Francois Chopin wrote 21 nocturnes for solo piano between 1827 and 1846. They are generally considered among the finest short solo works for the instrument and hold an important place in contemporary concert repertoire. Although he did not invent the nocturne, he popularised and expanded on it, building on the form developed by Irish composer John Field. The young Chopin became a great admirer of Field, taking some influence from the Irish composer's playing and composing technique. Chopin had composed five of his nocturnes before meeting Field for the first time. While he held Field in high respect and considered him one of his primary influences, Field had a rather negative view of Chopin's work.
 
Chopin's nocturnes carry many similarities with those of Field while at the same time retaining a distinct, unique sound of their own. One aspect of the nocturne that he continued from Field is the use of a song-like melody in the right hand. This is one of the most if not the most important features to the nocturne as a whole. The use of the melody as vocals bestowed a greater emotional depth to the piece, drawing the listener in to a greater extent.  Along with the right-hand melody, another technique was playing broken chords on the left hand to act as the rhythm under his right-handed "vocal" melody, together with the more extensive use of the pedal. By using the pedal more, the music gains more emotional expression through sustained notes, giving the piece an aura of drama. One of the greatest innovations made by Chopin to the nocturne was his use of a more freely flowing rhythm, a technique based on the classical music style. He also developed its structure, taking inspiration from the Italian and French opera arias, as well as the sonata form. His use of counterpoint to create tension, expanded the dramatic tone and feel of the piece itself. Many think of the "Chopin nocturne" as a mix between the form and structure of Field and the sound of Mozart, displaying a classic-cum-romantic-influenced theme within the music. 
 
Chopin's nocturnes numbered 1 to 18 were published during his lifetime, in twos or threes, in the order of composition. However, numbers 19 and 20 were actually written first, prior to Chopin's departure from Poland, but published posthumously. Number 21 was not originally entitled "nocturne" at all, but since its publication in 1938 as such, it is generally included with publications and recordings of the set. While the popularity of individual nocturnes has varied considerably since Chopin's death, they have retained a significant position in piano repertoire, with the Op. 9 No. 2 in E♭ major and the Op. 27 No. 2 in D♭ major perhaps the most enduringly popular.
 
Various composers from both Chopin's lifetime and later have expressed their influences from his work with nocturnes. Such artists as Johannes Brahms and Richard Wagner display similar melodic techniques and styles in their music. Other composers such as Mendelssohn, Schumann, and Liszt described the genius that lay within Chopin's nocturnes. It is clear that these piano compositions made a noticeable and lasting impact on music and composition during the romantic period. The most important later composer of nocturnes was Gabriel Fauré, who greatly admired Chopin, and composed thirteen works in this genre. Other later composers who have written solo piano nocturnes include Georges Bizet, Erik Satie, Alexander Scriabin, Francis Poulenc, Samuel Barber, Sergei Rachmaninov, and Lowell Liebermann.
 
Here are four albums:
 
Chopin: Nocturnes Nos. 1 – 19. Arthur Rubinstein (piano). Release Date: 6 Dec 2010. Label: Sony. Catalogue No: 8869769412. Hi-Res FLAC (Lossless, 96 kHz, 24 bit).
Award:
Presto Greatest Recordings of the 1960s.
 
Chopin: Complete Nocturnes. Jan Lisiecki (piano). Release Date: 13 Aug 2021. Label: Deutsche Grammophon. Catalogue No: 4860761. Hi-Res FLAC (Lossless, 96 kHz, 24 bit).
Award:
International Classical Music Awards, 2022, Nominated – Solo Instrumental

​Chopin: Nocturnes. Stephen Hough (piano). Release Date: 29 Oct 2012. Label: Hyperion. Catalogue No: CDA68351-2. Hi-Res FLAC (Lossless, 192 kHz, 24 bit).
Award:
Sunday Times, 10 Best Classical Albums of 2021.
 
Chopin: The Complete Chopin Edition. Krystian Zimerman (piano), Claudio Arrau (piano), Anatol Ugorski (piano), Maurizio Pollini (piano), Vladimir Ashkenazy (Waltzes, piano), Maria João Pires (Nocturnes, piano), Martha Argerich (piano), Rafal Blechacz (piano), Yundi Li (piano), Lilya Zilberstein (piano), Mikhail Pletnev (piano), Kurt Bauer, Heidi Bung (pianos), Vovka Ashkenazy (pianos), Beaux Arts Trio, Mstislav Rostropovich (cello), Anner Bijlsma (cello), Lambert Orkis (piano), Elzbieta Szmytka (soprano), Martin Martineau (piano), and Polish Festival Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Eliahu Inbal. Release Date: 11 Jan 2010. Label: Deutsche Grammophon. Catalogue No: 4778445. FLAC (CD Quality, 44.1 kHz, 16 bit). 
Awards:
Presto Recording of the Week, 26 April 2010.
Radio 3 Building a Library, November 2010, First Choice.
​

​Reference:
Nocturnes By Chopin, (2024, December 15). In Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocturnes_(Chopin)

Frédéric Chopin's waltzes are pieces of moderate length for piano, all written between 1824 and 1849. The waltzes are among the best known and loved of Chopin’s works. They are all in waltz triple meter, specifically 3/4 (except Op. P1/13, which is in 3/8 time), but differ from earlier Viennese waltzes in not being intended for dancing. Nonetheless, several have been used in ballets, most notably Les Sylphides. Some are accessible by pianists of modest capability, others require advanced technique. Chopin treated some of his waltzes as compositional ‘presents’, writing them into albums as keepsakes. Such works belong to the ‘private’ strand in his oeuvre, not intended for publication. 
 
Chopin may have written as many as 37 piano waltzes, but only nineteen (along with one inauthentic waltz) are numbered and only eight were published (in Opp. 18, 34, 42 and 64) before he died. His desire was that any unpublished works should be burned, but his sister Ludwika and Julian Fontana proceeded anyway to publish Waltzes 9–13 (as Opp. 69 and 70). Six waltzes composed 1826–1831 and present in Frédéric’s Paris home were at first preserved but then lost in an unintended 1863 fire in Ludwika's house. Another six were eventually published as Waltzes 14–19. These Chopin had given to related people without guarding the manuscripts. Waltz 18 was untitled; it is in 3/4 time and bears some characteristics of a waltz but is marked Sostenuto. Waltz 17 is not accepted as authentic by the Fryderyk Chopin Institute; to the other five in this group it has assigned WN numbers (29, 18, 28, 53 and 63). Waltz 20 is likewise inauthentic. Another authentic waltz in A minor was rediscovered in 2024 and has not yet been published or numbered. Separately, the last variation of Chopin’s (authentic) Variations on a German National Air (Der Schweizerbub), WN 6, is in the form of a waltz. Besides, there remain: 

1. Extant waltzes in private hands, unavailable to researchers
2. Waltzes believed destroyed or lost
3. Waltzes of which documentary evidence exists but whose manuscripts are not known to exist

 
The composer had no intention of publishing a number of youthful waltzes from his Warsaw period, which include both subtle, lyrical miniatures (Waltz in B minor [WN 19]) and virtuosic waltzes (most notably the effective Waltz in E minor). Of a different character are the concert waltzes from the ‘official’ strand in the Chopin oeuvre. Their dimensions are larger, and the pianistic splendour incomparably greater. Here the degree of artistic refinement reaches its peak, particularly manifest in the rich melodies and subtle harmonies. Among these eight masterful waltzes, two fundamental types may be distinguished. The first, more numerous, type is the striking waltz of virtuosic panache-the valse brillante. This type of composition might begin with a distinctive introduction and end with a virtuosic coda, fulfilling the role of the climax of the work (Waltz in E flat major, Op. 18, Waltz in A flat major, Op. 34 No. 1). The second type is associated with a different sort of expression: it is the melancholic, almost sentimental, waltz in a much slower tempo. The most famous examples of this type are the Waltz in A minor, Op. 34 No. 2 and Waltz in C sharp minor, Op. 64 No. 2, although it should be remembered that both these types are also present among the waltzes of the ‘private’ strand.
 
Here are four albums:
 
Chopin: The Complete Waltzes. Stephen Hough (piano). Release Date: 1 Aug 2011. Label: Hyperion. Catalogue No: CDA67849. FLAC (CD Quality, 44.1 kHz, 16 bit).
Awards:
BBC Music Magazine, September 2011, Instrumental Choice.
Gramophone Awards, 2012, Finalist – Instrumental.
 
Chopin: Late Works. Maurizio Pollini (piano). Release Date: 27 Jan 2017. Label: Deutsche Grammophon. Catalogue No: 94796127. Hi-Res FLAC (Lossless, 96 kHz, 24 bit).
Award:
ECHO Klassik Awards, 2017, Winner.
 
Chopin: Waltzes & Impromptus. Arthur Rubinstein (piano). Release Date: 10 May 2004. Label: RCA. Catalogue No: 82876594222. FLAC (CD Quality, 44.1 kHz, 16 bit).
Award:
Penguin Guide, Rosette.
 
Chopin: The Complete Chopin Edition. Krystian Zimerman (piano), Claudio Arrau (piano), Anatol Ugorski (piano), Maurizio Pollini (piano), Vladimir Ashkenazy (Waltzes, piano), Maria João Pires (piano), Martha Argerich (piano), Rafal Blechacz (piano), Yundi Li (piano), Lilya Zilberstein (piano), Mikhail Pletnev (piano), Kurt Bauer, Heidi Bung (pianos), Vovka Ashkenazy (pianos), Beaux Arts Trio, Mstislav Rostropovich (cello), Anner Bijlsma (cello), Lambert Orkis (piano), Elzbieta Szmytka (soprano), Martin Martineau (piano), and Polish Festival Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Eliahu Inbal. Release Date: 11 Jan 2010. Label: Deutsche Grammophon. Catalogue No: 4778445. FLAC (CD Quality, 44.1 kHz, 16 bit). 
Awards:
Presto Recording of the Week, 26 April 2010.
Radio 3 Building a Library, November 2010, First Choice.

​Reference:
Bielecki, A. (2024). Waltzes. The Fryderyk Chopin Institute. 
 
Waltzes Chopin. (2024, December 14). In Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waltzes_(Chopin)

Modest Mussorgsky wrote this piano suite in ten movements in 1874. It is a musical depiction of a tour of an exhibition of works by architect and painter Viktor Hartmann put on at the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg, following his sudden death. They likely met in the home of the influential critic Vladimir Stasov, who followed both of their careers with interest. The work is dedicated to Stasov.
 
Hartmann's sudden death on 4 August 1873 from an aneurysm shook Mussorgsky along with others in Russia's art world. The loss of the artist, aged only 39, plunged the composer into deep despair. Stasov helped to organize a memorial exhibition of over 400 Hartmann works in the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg in February and March 1874. Mussorgsky lent to the exhibition the two pictures Hartmann had given him, and viewed the show in person. Thanks to Stasov’s commitment the exhibition Pictures at an Exhibition — To the Memory of Viktor Hartmann was organized with architectural plans, costume designs, stage settings, utensils and artifacts, free sketches and aquarelles which through their diversity were evidence of Hartmann’s original spirit. One of the visitors was Musorgsky; he probably felt closest to Hartmann‘s oeuvre, sharing the latter’s fascination with Russian folklore and its specific, rich coloration. 

Later in June, two-thirds of the way through composing his song cycle Sunless, Mussorgsky was inspired to compose Pictures at an Exhibition, quickly completing the score in three weeks (2–22 June 1874).Each movement of the suite is based on an individual work, some of which are lost. The composition has become a showpiece for virtuoso pianists, and became widely known from orchestrations and arrangements produced by other composers and contemporary musicians, with Maurice Ravel's 1922 adaptation for orchestra being the most recorded and performed. The suite, particularly the final movement, "The Bogatyr Gates," is widely considered one of Mussorgsky's greatest works.
 
Mussorgsky based his musical material on drawings and watercolours by Hartmann produced mostly during the artist's travels abroad. Locales include Italy, France, Poland, Russia, and Ukraine. Today most of the pictures from the Hartmann exhibition are lost, making it impossible to be sure in many cases which Hartmann works Mussorgsky had in mind. Mussorgsky owned the two pictures that together inspired No. 6, the so-called "Two Jews." Arts critic Alfred Frankenstein gave an account of Hartmann, with reproductions of his pictures, in the article "Victor Hartmann and Modeste Mussorgsky" in The Musical Quarterly (July 1939). Frankenstein claimed to have identified seven pictures by catalogue number, corresponding to:

• "Tuileries" [Movement 3] (now lost)
• "Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks" [Movement 5]
• "Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuÿle" [Movement 6] (Frankenstein suggested two separate portraits, still extant, as the basis for "Two Jews: Rich and Poor")
• "Catacombs" [Movement 8]
• "The Hut on Hen's Legs" [Movement 9]
• "The Bogatyr Gates" [Movement 10]

 
Vladimir Stasov's programme and the six known extant pictures suggest the ten pieces that make up the suite correspond to eleven pictures by Hartmann, with "Samuel Goldenberg und Schmuÿle" accounting for two. The five Promenades are not numbered with the ten pictures and consist in the composer's manuscript of two titled movements and three untitled interludes appended to the first, second, and fourth pictures.   Mussorgsky links the suite's movements in a way that depicts the viewer's own progress through the exhibition. Two Promenade movements stand as portals to the suite's main sections. Their regular pace and irregular meter depict the act of walking. Three untitled interludes present shorter statements of this theme, varying the mood, colour, and key in each to suggest reflection on a work just seen or anticipation of a new work glimpsed. A turn is taken in the work at the "Catacombae" when the Promenade theme stops functioning as merely a linking device and becomes, in "Cum mortuis", an integral element of the movement itself. The theme reaches its apotheosis in the suite's finale, "The Bogatyr Gates." The first two movements of the suite—one grand, one grotesque—find mirrored counterparts, and apotheoses, at the end. The suite traces a journey that begins at an art exhibition, but the line between observer and observed vanishes at the Catacombs when the journey takes on a different character.
 
The order of movements are as follows:
Promenade, The Gnome, Promenade, The Old Castle, Promenade, Tuileries (Children’s Quarrel after Games), Cattle, Promenade, Ballet of Unhatched Chicks, Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle, Promenade, Limoges The Market (The Great News), Catacombs (Roman Tomb), With the Dead in a Dead Language, The Hut on Hen’s Legs (Baba Yaga), and The Bogatyr Gates (In the Capital in Kiev). 
 
In some of the parts the link with Hartmann’s oeuvre is conspicuous: Catacombs is a splendid, but uncanny sketch with Hartmann in the crypts of Paris, surrounded by pale skeletons and an odour of silent corruption, captured by Mussorgsky in naked, raw chords. The section Cum mortuis in lingua mortua was annotated by the composer as follows: “The creative spirit of Hartmann leads me to the skulls, invoking them. Thereupon, the skulls began to glow softly.” The impressive sight of The Great Gate of Kiev — a fantastic sketch by Hartmann that, like many of his works, was never executed — is echoed in the accompaniment by obbligato bells. In The Tuileries we hear the children from Hartmann’s picture playing, laughing and squabbling in the gar- dens of Paris, while Hartmann’s costume designs for the ballet Trilby inspired Mussorgsky to compose his Ballet of the Chickens in Their Shells as a musical equivalent of busy scratching and charming cheeping. Linking other parts of the suite to Hartmann’s oeuvre is less evident. The pictorial inspiration for some of the musical sections cannot even be determined at all, as Hartmann is known to have made different versions of the same theme, or else because the original works have not yet been — and probably never will be — traced. The Old Castle is supposed to show a medieval castle with a troubadour in an Italian landscape, but no illustration corresponds to this description. For The Gnome, too, we only have Stasov’s word that the idea originated in a de- sign for a nutcracker, shaped as a grotesque dwarf with deformed legs. In other cases problems lie in ill-fitting details or vagueness. Bydło, for instance, is Mussorgsky‘s impression of a Polish oxcart, but neither the diabolic atmosphere nor the coachman — both suggested by the composer — are visible on Hartmann’s picture. Mussorgsky‘s scene with gossiping women in The Marketplace in Limoges cannot be traced to any of Hartmann’s sketches of this town. Baba-Yaga, then, is based on a design for a clock shaped like a hut on fowl’s legs, according to a Russian folktale the home of the witch Baba-Yaga. In Mussorgsky‘s fantasy this man-eating sorceress, specialized in pulverizing children’s bones in a stone pot, fumingly speeds through the air on her broomstick. Mussorgsky is probably going farthest in his manipulation of Hartmann’s materials in Samuel Goldenberg & Schmuÿle: here he combines two portraits (the rich and the begging Jew) into a polarized dialogue, the former figure on top of things in the treble of the orchestral score, the latter stumbling in the bass line. A masterly display of dramatic skills! Allegedly the portraits once belonged to Mussorgsky himself, and were lent out by him to the exhibition. The issues remain complex, though: did Mussorgsky really take his cue from these works, or were the characters mainly figments of his own imagination? That certainly is true for the Promenade which serves as the opening of the suite and recurs in shortened and changed shapes. Here we accompany the composer on his walk to and throughout the exhibition hall. The theme of the Promenade has also been incorporated into Cum mortuis in lingua mortua and The Great Gate of Kiev, where it turns into a hymn with a patriotic slant. 
 
Here are four albums:

​Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition. Behzod Abduraimov (piano). Release Date: 15 Jan 2021. Label: Alpha. Catalogue No: ALPHA653. Hi-Res FLAC (Lossless, 96 kHz, 24 bit). 
Awards:
Gramophone Awards, 2021, Shortlisted – Piano.
Gramophone Magazine, January 2012, Editor’s Choice.
Gramophone Magazine, Critics’ Choice 2021.
International Classical Music Awards, 2022, Nominated – Solo Instrument.
Presto Recording of the Week, 22 January 2021.
Radio 3 Record review, 23 January 2021, Record of the Week.
 
Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition. Steven Osborne (piano). Release Date: 28 Jan 2013. Label: Hyperion. Catalogue No: CDA67896. Hi-Res FLAC (Lossless, 88.2 kHz, 24 bit). 
Awards:
BBC Music Magazine, March 2013, Disc of the Month.
Gramophone Awards, 2013, Winner – Instrumental.
Gramophone Magazine, March 2013, Editor’s Choice.
Presto Recording of the Week, 21 January 2013.
 
Mussorgsky-Stokowski: Pictures at an Exhibition. José Serebrier and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. Release Date: 30 Aug 2005. Label: Naxos. Catalogue No: 8557645. FLAC (CD Quality, 44.1 kHz, 16 bit).
Awards:
Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2005, Disc of the Month.
Penguin Guide, Rosette.
Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition. Jos Van Immerseel and Anima Eterna Brugge. Release Date: 31 Mar 2014. Label: Zigzag. Catalogue No: ZZT343. Hi-Res FLAC (Lossless, 96 kHz, 24 bit).
Awards:
Gramophone Magazine, July 2014, Editor’s Choice.
Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2014.

​Reference:
Pictures at an Exhibition. (2024, November 1). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pictures_at_an_Exhibition
 
Taes, S & Immerseel, J.V. (2014). Ravel Ma Mere l’Oye & Musorgsky/Ravel Pictrues at an Exhibition. Outhere Music Music.

​
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky completed his last ballet, the two-act 90-minutes classical piece in April 1892, and it was premiered on 18 December at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, Russia, choreographed by Marius Petipa, who also composed the libretto. The plot was adapted from E.T.A. Hoffmann’s 1816 short children’s story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, adapted by Alexandre Dumas. It’s first performance was not well received until 1944 when it was performed in the United States by the San Francisco Ballet under the artistic director William Christensen. The 20-minute Nutcracker Suite was premiered 9 months earlier.
Here are four albums:

Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker, Op. 71. Valery Gergiev with Kirov Orchestra. Release Date: 16 Nov 1998. Label: Philips.

Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker. Vladimir Jurowski with State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia “Evgeny Svetlanov.” Release Date: 15 Nov 2019. Label: Pentatone.

Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker. Richard Bonynge with National Philharmonic Orchestra and Finchley Children’s Music Group.Release Date: 16 May 2005. Label: Decca.

​Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker. Gustavo Dudamel with Los Angeles Philharmonic. Release Date: 30 Nov 2018. Label: Deutsche Grammophon.

Tchaikovsky: Ballet Suites. Mstislav Rostropovich with Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Release Date: 1 Jul 1996. Label: Deutsche Grammophon.

​Tchaikovsky: Nutcracker Suite & Piano Concerto No. 1. Martha Argerich, Nicolas Economou and Claudio Abbado with Berliner Philharmoniker. Release Date: 12 Aug 1996. Label: Deutsche Grammophon. 

Reference: (2024). Schwarm, B. The Nutcracker, Ballet by Tchaikovsky. Britannica.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Nutcracker