David Wilde plays Chopin, Vol. III

Drive Featured Album, from 20 July 2015, after 6pm.

Recently turned 80 years old, David Wilde studied under such luminaries as Solomon and Nadia Boulanger. Remarkably for his age, he's continuing to delve deeply into the piano music of Chopin as part of an extraordinary, lifelong musical journey. When he sat down to record Chopin's B flat minor Scherzo for this album he reportedly told his producer, "I ve been playing this piece for 73 years I don t think I need a score!" 

This is Wilde's third album of Chopin piano music for the Delphian label. He brings to his interpretations an entire lifetime of absorbing and trying to understand the composer's psyche. 

As with the previous albums in the series, the playing is remarkable. Wilde approaches familiar works from an epic viewpoint. It is an intelligent and vibrant vision, joined with a ruggedness that is not always expected for music from a composer who is more often treated with romantic sweetness.