Chopin: Piano Concerto No 1 / Fantasia on Polish Airs

"...the assertiveness Nebolsin brings to the second subject of the Concerto's allegro immediately establishes an extrovert approach that persists through the disc. His virtuosity often creates a sense of high drama...In keeping with the scale of it all, conductor Antoni Wit favours big forces and grand-manner orchestral playing." The Guardian, 12th August 2010 ****

"[Nebolsin] proves himself a scintillating and persuasive Chopinist, alive to every detail and, indeed, subtly highlighting a few that are generally ignored...[The Rondo is] the highlight of the disc, nonchalantly fleet-fingered, beautifully phrased and conveying a real joy of shared music-making." Gramophone

Chopin's youthful Piano Concerto No. 1 is dominated by the brilliant piano part that the teenage performer-composer wrote to showcase his extraordinary virtuosity.

Its ravishing Romanza ('reviving in one's soul beautiful memories', as the composer described it) is framed by an opening movement rich in dramatic lyricism and a vivacious Rondo.

The Fantasy on Polish Airs, Op. 13 and the Rondo à la Krakowiak are similarly vehicles for Romantic reverie and bravura which pay tribute to the music of his homeland.

Eldar Nebolsin's recording of Liszt's piano concertos (8570517) was ranked "among the finest" by Gramophone.