Paderewski: Piano Sonata / Variations & Fugues

'All three works provide the listener with an incredible musical journey; a kaleidoscope of pianistic ideas with fleeting echoes of Rachmaninov, Brahms, Debussy, and even elements of earlier music with its elegance and trills, yet in no way derivative. The playing is world-class; understated virtuosity at its best. Plowright easily integrates all the difficult elements - and Paderewski described the Op.23 Variations as his best and most difficult work - into the musical lines as if they don't exist' (BBC Music Magazine)

'It's all dense music, highly wrought, and Jonathan Plowright plays it quite superbly, with an enviable range of keyboard colour' (The Guardian)

'… A pianist who clearly believes in the music, who has studied it with appreciation and insight. Jonathan Plowright fits the bill admirably - and he has the technical wherewithal to do it justice. He unfolds the extended Fugue of Opus 23 imperiously; here the astringency of Paderewski's conception perfectly caps what has gone before. This is fascinating music impressively performed, recorded and annotated - and cannot be recommended too highly' (ClassicalSource.com)

Approaching 150 years since the birth of Ignacy Jan Paderewski (1860-1941) there remains a certain ambivalence about his legacy. Should he be judged primarily as a pianist or as a composer-pianist? The three works on this disc make the strongest possible case for the latter. The large-scale Piano Sonata in E flat minor, Op 21, is a powerful, turbulent work, showing the composer's affinity with Rachmaninov in its passion and extreme technical difficulty, contrasting on occasion with writing of affecting simplicity.

The brilliant Jonathan Plowright is the ideal apologist for this music-a keen advocate of the Polish Romantic repertoire, possessed of the highest qualities of technique and interpretation.