A vintage not to be missed
Patrick P.L. Lam - Audiophile Audition
“Sa Chen, born in Chongqing, is a natural for Chopin, sparklingly clear in touch and perfectly attuned to the composer’s breed of stretched, lyrical melancholy”.
Guy Dammann
The Observer
“If your main interest is in Chopin’s concertos concerns the orchestra, you’re in luck, for Lawrence Foster is one of the few conductors who takes trouble to make Chopin’s orchestrations sound well”.
Jed Distler
Gramophone
“What also sold the performances here was Chen Sa’s skilful ability to capture the youthful spirit and poise of the music as well as its growing maturity. Ms. Chen’s approach reflected the typically Chopin tensions of pianist vs. composer, overt virtuosity vs. restrained lyricism, and Classical vs. Romantic…… This recording easily rivals in excellence the recent release by the pianist’s compatriot Lang Lang… A vintage recording - not to be missed!
Patrick Lam
Music Web
“On this new CD Sa Chen comes across as a fully formed musician: her playing has great poetry and is full of subtle shading as well as elegance and poise. She has a wonderfully fluid technique, but also a great ear for colour. If this sounds like a virtually ideal recipe for a Chopin pianist, so it proves. This is a most rewarding set of the two concertos, with Chen able to shape phrases in imaginative ways that never seem arch or forced”.
Nigel Simeone
International Record Review
“What we do have here, though, is a pianist whose technique is such that every note registers cleanly, captured in engineering that reproduces with precision an unusually beautiful piano tone. Any pianist worth his or her salt has recorded these works but I don’t think I’ve heard any achieve such a feeling of skipping lightness in the E minor’s first movement coda or in the opening of the Finale”.
Hugo Shirley
MusicalCriticism.com
“Pentatone’s recording is unquestionably the finest sound that these works have ever been given and is astonishingly life-like; the balance between piano and orchestra is nigh-on perfect and the multi-channel recording gives a pleasing sense of being in an ideal stalls seat”.
John Broggio
SA-CD.net
“This is Chopin for everyone and I can’t really find anything here I am not completely satisfied with. I am delighted to have heard her and look fprward to more from this superb artist on this label in the future. Yhere is also an excellent DVD interview included. Strongly recommended.”
Richard Foster
HiFi+magazine
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