Chopin Nocturnes - CD Review

A sticker on the cover notes that in this two-CD set "the greatest of all living Chopin interpreters records the composer's best-loved works for the first time". Greatest? Best? Two big claims, but completely justified. Pollini won the Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw in 1960 and his stature has risen steadily since. Here are 19 titanic interpretations. My all-time favourite performances, by the late Artur Rubinstein, are almost unbearably poetic, mystical, and rarified, ravishing in tone, colour and shape. Pollini concedes little in either poetry or imagination, but is much more dramatic and grounded. He brings out the fire in Chopin's soul, yet every note is perfectly nuanced. These performances are the distillation of a lifetime's reflection and playing, and they are utterly worth the wait. For me, this is perhaps the CD of the year.

Back to School

Piano Shop owners all over the country breathed a huge sigh of relief last week when most of the nations kids went back to school leaving their parents with enough time to think about buying a piano. Let the games begin !!

Summer Sales Slump

It's the time of year again when many piano shops complain of dwindling sales figures. Maybe it's the hot weather, maybe it's the fact that families are going on holiday instead of buying luxury items or maybe it's just coincidence.

So if you go to a piano shop in the summer months, be warned that you might face some heavy pressure to buy. Choose your shop wisely, make sure you trust the dealer and don't let yourself be pressured into buying something that you are not 100% happy with.