Richard Raymond - Chopin: Valses (2001)

Whether short pœms or large musical soundscapes, the waltzes of Frederic Chopin (1810-1849) derive their seductive powers from their intimate nature, their sensibility and their fantasy. Chopin entrusted his musical genius almost entirely to the piano, the preferred musical instrument of the Romantic era. A brilliant pianist himself, he was blessed with the ability to perform his works as he heard them in his mind.

Unlike Liszt, Chopin preferred the smaller audiences of salons to those of concert halls, which craved displays of virtuosity. George Hogarth, a commentator of the time, summed up the performance style and works of the composer pianist thus: "His playing exudes the utmost delicacy, a smooth and limpid sonority, with a clear-cut roundness in swiftly moving passages, whereas his music is characterized by a freedom of thought, a whole palette of expressiveness and a romantic melancholy that appears to embody the natural predisposition of the artist's character."