Live a little dangerously with Chopin

Pianist Stefan Vladar performs a greatly animated rendition of Chopins' Ballades and Preludes

Composer: Chopin
Repertoire: Ballades 1-4; 24 Preludes, Op.28
Artists: Stefan Vladar (piano)
Rating: 4/5
Genre: Instrumental
Label: HMC 905260

Any notion of Chopin being a dilettante lightweight is blown clean out of the water by Stefan Vladar’s impassioned pianism. By pointing up the electrifying contrasts in Chopin’s Ballades, Vladar ensures that the listener is hurtled along on a musical roller-coaster ride, lurching from introspective poetics to lacerating outbursts of angst-fuelled desperation. Some may prefer a less turbulent exploration, but do give this disc a spin.