CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Known as the “poet of the piano” for his romantic, melancholic compositions and his revolutionary, nuanced playing style, Polish composer and pianist Frederic Chopin continues to entice pianists and woo audiences more than 160 years after his death.
Internationally acclaimed pianist and conductor Ian Hobson, who also is the Swanlund Professor of Piano and the Center for Advanced Studies Professor of Music at the University of Illinois, is marking the bicentenary of Chopin’s birth with a series of concerts and the release of a 16-volume series of recordings that encompass Chopin’s complete works.
Hobson has a long history with Chopin. In 1975, the year that Hobson joined Illinois’ faculty, he won the U.S. National Chopin Competition, and that same year competed in the Frederic Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw, Poland, a prestigious event held every five years.
One of a select few pianists and conductors to record Chopin’s complete works, Hobson also is perhaps the first person to include in his Chopin retrospective new or alternative versions of key pieces. “La ci darem la mano” in B flat major for piano and orchestra, which Hobson performs on Volume 2 as a piano solo, also appears on Volume 3 with Hobson conducting Sinfonia Varsovia, based in Warsaw, in accompaniment.
Organized in chronological order, the pieces in the collection were recorded between 2003 and 2009, mainly in Poland. Of the 16 volumes, 12 are solo piano.
“It was an educational journey for me to start with some of the pieces that Chopin wrote – such as the mazurkas and polonaises – when he was only 7, 8 or 9 years old,” Hobson said. “Proceeding chronologically, you see the incredible growth of his genius.”
Volume 2 is titled “Hats off,” in reference to an article written by composer and pianist Robert Schumann, who hailed Chopin’s brilliance by writing: “Hats off, gentlemen! A genius!” after reading the manuscript for “La ci darem la mano.”
Chopin lived in “the time of the show-off, virtuoso pianist,” Hobson said. “He knew how to make the piano sing. Chopin is refined, elegant, beautifully wrought piano writing. Nothing of Chopin was awkwardly written. He had an aristocratic, refined sense of proportion.”
Ates Orga, the author of two Chopin biographies, wrote the program notes and titles for each volume, which examine each piece in the context of Chopin’s life, his evolution as an artist and musical fashions of the time period.
Hobson is performing solo piano selections from the Chopin collection in a series of 12 Sunday-afternoon concerts at the Tallgrass Loft in the historic Norton Building, 200 W. 11th St., Lockport, Ill. On March 21, Hobson will perform selections from Volume 6, “Kingdom of Poetry,” and on April 11 selections from Volume 7, “Cannons Among Flowers.”
Hobson also will perform on May 9, Sept. 19, Oct. 24, Nov. 21 and Dec. 19.
On March 13, Hobson will perform Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor in concert with Sinfonia da Camera at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts at the U. of I. The program also will include selections by Debussy and Schumann. Hobson is music director of Sinfonia da Camera.
For tickets to the Tallgrass series, call 815-685-8814; e-mail nconcerts@earthlink.net.
Tickets to the Sinfonia performance may be purchased online or by phone at 217-333-6280 or 800-527-2849.
Hobson’s 2010 concert schedule is available on his Web page.
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