Catalogue Connection: 12401

This album is extremely well recorded and pressed. There is no surface noise to speak of, and the quality of the performance by Burkard Schliessmann is superb. As with most people that love classical music, I have many different Chopin albums. There are many pianists that excel playing Chopin. Some of my favorite Chopin albums are by Martha Argerich (especially her “Legendary Recordings”), Artur Rubinstein, and Van Cliburn. Burkard is certainly as accomplished as any other pianists I have heard, and a joy to listen to.

What makes this album so outstanding is the sound quality. Simply put, I have never heard a piano as well recorded as on this album. It sounds like we are sitting next to the piano!

Yes, it is expensive, but it is worth it! I can not imagine anyone disappointing with their purchase of this state of the art recording and pressing.

This double LP contains famous Chopinian works (from the Ballades nos. 1, 3 and 4 to the Scherzi nos. 2 and 4; from the Polonaise-Fantaisie to the Barcarolle), performed by one of the greatest German interpreters, Burkard Schliessmann. The recordings first appeared on an SACD from the same label that now presents them on its first audiophile vinyl album. Schliessmann is a remarkable interpreter of Bach, and this background enables him to face Chopin with an approach which, if it betrays an analytical element, at the same time has no lack of passion, heat and poignancy, and shows the brilliant Polish composer as an inheritor of the harmonic conquests of the Kantor.

The two 180g. LPs, enclosed in an elegant package and manufactured by Pallas of Berlin, are, for sound reproduction, a great product but cannot aspire to olympian audiophile heights as they were remastered digitally at 24 bit so the digital filtering is only partly alleviated by the vinyl. Having listened to both SACD and vinyl, it is obvious that on the latter, the inevitable angularity of the upper register is softened, and the lower registers made more dense and less metallic, but of course the overall result is affected by the lack of original analog recording so without that approach’s softness and vaporous roundness. For that reason one less point in our award for technical quality.

Artistic Interpretation: Exceptional Technical quality: Optimal

What we have here is a two lp collection of Chopin pieces recorded between 2009 and 2013 by a pianist whose Chopin, including these performances, has been amply praised in these pages by a series of my colleagues. Based on his annotations, I assume, Schliessmann has been repeatedly called an intellectual: interestingly, we are typically told that this trait doesn’t tarnish his playing. That playing is bold, certainly on these lps rich in tone, and virtuosic.

I was surprised by the opening of the first Ballade, which seemed to present the theme almost in pieces, as in a conversation rather than a flow. It’s an approach that works beautifully in the Scherzo in B flat minor, for instance. Perhaps an intellectual Chopin player is one who points out the structural devices more clearly than another. Mostly I am, like my colleagues, convinced, if not swept away, by Schliessmann’s rich sounding, carefully articulated playing, by his occasional tenderness as well as his almost majestic playing elsewhere. As for the recording, I note that Stephen Sutton has been given credit for digital remastering of this music for the lps. This is not a direct-to-disc collection, but the piano sound is impressive by any standards.

Burkard Schliessmann has been distinguished by the award of three Silver Medals at the Global Music Awards 2017 – as instrumentalist and ‘classical artist’ and for his spectacular Divine Art album ‘Chronological Chopin’. Divine Art’s first vinyl release is a selection of tracks from this triple SACD, which received glowing reviews from music critics the world over. An audiophile two-disc set recorded and mastered at 24-bit quality, this is a rare opportunity to obtain new recordings of Chopin’s masterpieces in the best sound and by a compelling interpreter. German pianist Burkard Schliessmann is a performer with a passion and vision – to seek out and interpret the forms, colours and textures, indeed the soul and expression: the poetic impact, of works we believe have already been fully explored.

His previous recordings have received worldwide acclaim – ‘Schliessmann is too good a pianist for anyone to pass on this.’ – American Record Guide. Chopin is above all his composer of choice to whom he has devoted endless hours of study and appreciation.

Pressed in 180-gram blue vinyl by Pallas of Berlin in a luxury gatefold sleeve, this is a true collector’s edition. Sound quality is warm yet precise, matching Schliessmann’s sensuous and brilliant performances of this sublime music. The nine tracks include Ballades Nos. 1, 3 & 4, the impressionistic Barcarolle in F sharp minor, the dramatic Scherzo No. 2 in B flat minor, and the breathtaking Polonaise-Fantaisie in A flat major. Highly recommended.