Simon Trpceski
0094637558621
94638795254 Digital
EMI Classics
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About the album
“Piano-playing of extraordinary prowess, personality and expressive perception”
(The Daily Telegraph)
Simon Trpceski, whose Rachmaninov recital disc met with universal critical acclaim, has recorded an all-Chopin programme featuring the Four Scherzos and the Sonata No. 2 in B-flat Minor. Trpceski, who has been described as “perhaps the most exciting pianistic talent to emerge on the international scene in recent years,” feels a close connection to Chopin and has said he believes that his own Slavic temperament and romantic disposition complement the composer’s personality.
Following Trpceski’s Wigmore Hall recital in June 2005, devoted to works by Chopin and Rachmaninov, Richard Morrison reported in The Times that, “Trpceski has, literally at his fingertips, a magical combination of power and poetry, sense and sensibility. … One hears warhorses such as Chopin’s B Minor Scherzo … reduced so often to near-incomprehensible ivory-pummelling that Trpčeski’s performance seemed like the lifting of a dense fog from a half-remembered landscape. … A pianistic talent in a thousand.” And La Provence, reviewing Trpceski’s all-Chopin recital at the Roque d’Antheron Festival in August 2005, said, “At the end of his performance, Simon Trpceski received the kind of warm ovation reserved by the public of La Roque for the very great pianists. … The Macedonian, brilliant and charismatic, plunged with ardour into the oeuvre of Chopin … and seduced the audience with its charm.”
Chopin composed the Funeral March in 1837 as an independent work, adding three movements to turn it into his Bb Minor Piano Sonata (No. 2) two years later. It is not a sonata in the usual sense of the term but its four movements contain wonderful and deeply moving music, about which Simon Trpčeski has commented, “Chopin was a man of surprises and the sonata captures that perfectly. The end of the last movement leaves us amazed and with many questions.” The Four Scherzos, composed in 1831, 1837, 1839 and 1843 respectively, are robust and powerful works, nothing like the scherzo movements by Haydn, Beethoven or Schumann that are filled with lightness and humour. Chopin’s scherzos are dramatic works, each in three parts with contrasting themes.
At the age of 27, Simon Trpceski has established a reputation as a pianist possessed of “extraordinary prowess, personality and expressive perception.” A native of the Republic of Macedonia, he won prizes in international piano competitions in the Czech Republic, Italy and the UK (London International Piano Competition 2000), was a member of the BBC’s New Generation Scheme from 2001-2003 and was awarded the “Young Artist Award” by the Royal Philharmonic Society in 2003. Simon’s first recital recording, part of EMI Classics’ Debut Series, featured works by Tchaikovsky, Scriabin, Stravinsky and Prokofiev and received both the Editor’s Choice and Debut Album awards at the 2003 Gramophone Awards. Gramophone Magazine wrote, “Everything is musically and ardently inflected and while Trpčeski’s virtuoso voltage … is awe-inspiring, his unfailing musicianship is even more remarkable.”
Today, Trpceski performs with many of the world’s premiere orchestras and conductors. A natural performer, his charisma and ability to create a rapport with audiences has inspired a devoted following and led to re-invitations everywhere he performs. Recent debuts include the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics and the San Francisco and Toronto Symphonies. He makes his London Symphony Orchestra debut in December 2006 with Antonio Pappano in Saint Saëns’ Piano Concerto No. 2, the same work with which he took the London Proms audience by storm in 2004, leading The Independent’s critic to write that, “people will be auctioning tickets for Simon Trpceski soon.”
In 2007, Trpceski performs concertos by Saint-Saëns, Rachmaninov and Prokofiev with The Philharmonia, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, Netherlands Radio Kammerphilharmonie, Orchestra National de Lille and Bournemouth Symphony.
