Pianists all over the world are playing Chopin, Chopin and more Chopin. Here, the International Piano Series at the Southbank <\/a>is dominated by him, and has scored a real coup by offering birthday recitals by both Krystian Zimerman (22 Feb) and Maurizio Pollini (1 March). Zimerman is playing both the big sonatas and I\u2019m advised that tickets are like gold dust.There\u2019s a Chopin Forum and plenty of pre-concert talks by experts like John Rink and Adrian Thomas. <\/p>\n Over at the Wigmore, they\u2019re largely avoiding the anniversary, but Alexandre Tharaud, a rising star<\/a> whose recordings I\u2019ve adored, is playing some, alongside Couperin and Scarlatti. Date for the diary. Chopin fans in London should also keep an eye on the excellent activities of the Chopin Society<\/a>, which has an ongoing programme of concerts and lectures: next dates are recitals by Cristina Ortiz and Piers Lane. <\/p>\n Record companies are churning out anniversary editions. For some it\u2019s obviously just a nice way to reissue old stuff yet again and hope that people will buy it, but DG\u2019s Complete Chopin Edition<\/a> is superb, full of treasures like Zimerman\u2019s lavish concertos and ballades, Pires\u2019s astonishingly poetic nocturnes, Ashkenazy very engaging in the waltzes and mazurkas, Pollini\u2019s 50-carat fingertips on the etudes and polonaises, and Rostropovich and Argerich burning holes in the cello sonata. EMI\u2019s set <\/a>includes some fabulous mazurkas from Ronald Smith and some specially recorded rarities from young Benjamin Grosvenor.\u00a0 <\/p>\n And this is, of course, just the beginning. To kick things off, here is Zimerman in the Third Ballade. Enjoy!<\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/i><\/a><\/i><\/a><\/i><\/a><\/i><\/a><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n<\/h3>\n
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Theatre\u2019s plague year<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"