When Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy's recording of the Preludes was first released in 2011 critics
reached for the superlatives: 'In his recording of Chopin's 24 Preludes Wolfram
Schmitt-Leonardy achieves a fusion of impassioned ardor and classical textual rigor... the best
of Schmitt-Leonardy's Chopin adds up to a stimulating and compelling listening journey well
worth traveling even if you've heard these works hundreds of times.'(Jed Distler Classics
Today). Now the Preludes have been recoupled with new recordings of the Ballades and Impromptus
made in January 2015 and also made available within the latest version of Brilliant Classics'
Chopin Edition (94660). With their more intricate structures and longer-form narratives these
works also respond to the sureness of touch and steady pulse that make Schmitt-Leonardy
particularly acclaimed for his Brahms. Hebuilds the Ballades patiently and with awareness of
the extrovert spirit identified by one of Chopin's contemporaries as 'animated by the
strangeness of the Romantic world sung in a melancholy tone in a serious style simple and
natural in its expressions.' This latest release from one of the finest German pianists of his
generation is sure to receive wide critical attention not only in his home country but
internationally. Schmitt-Leonardy (b.1967) can boast among his teachers and mentors such
luminaries of the piano world as Ciccolini Ponti and Weissenberg. Critics such as Peter Cossé
Ingo Harden Knut Franke Jeremy Siepmann Gregor Willmes Ates Orga and others have praised
his interpretations as 'astonishing exquisite electrifying dazzling brilliant as well as
grippingly independent'. He is 'a virtuoso to the Russian manner born but with a Classicist's
sense of proportion a multi-hued tonal palette which abjures only the ugly and a propulsive
rhythmic vocabulary which keeps you listening every note of the way.' This 2CD set contains the
complete 4 Ballades Impromptus and the Preludes Op. 28. The names of these genres were not
invented by Chopin but he gave them a wholly new original and personal meaning and content.
The Ballades are full bodied works in a free narrative form building up the tension and drama
from the contemplative lyrical beginnings to the highly passionate conclusions. The Impromptus
are in free A-B-A form and are a fusion of the Nocturne and Ballade style. The Preludes Op. 28
are the romantic answer to Bach's Preludes each short piece a gem of refined and distilled
emotions. Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy is one of the finest German pianists of his generation. The
recording of the Preludes received a 9 9 on Classicstoday Jed Distler wrote: he achieves a
fusion of impassioned ardor and classical textual rigor... the best of Schmitt-Leonardy's
Chopin adds up to a stimulating and compelling listening journey well worth traveling even if
you've heard these works hundreds of times. astonishing exquisite electrifying dazzling
brilliant as well as grippingly independent (Ates Orga).
