#81 The Smell of Ball

Orchestra starts with pretending  a serious piece of music is coming. But the piano flows in feebly and soon there's a ball in a big ballroom with all the candelabras and stairways and people floating up and down.

Blechacz plays nobly, with an aristocratic tone. RCGO fits well to both position of full blood orchestra and chamber playing.

Composer: Frédérick Chopin
Work: Piano Concerto No 1, III. Rondo: Vivace
Recording: Rafał Blechacz, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Jerzy Semkow

#47 The Smell of Fuss

Here's music fussing around, always on its way, going somewhere. Hard to anticipate, hard to follow.

It's always fascinating when pauses are able to play music. In this sonata, and in Blechacz's interpretation, pauses are very important, and–now this is so weird–wonderfully played.

Composer: Joseph Haydn
Work: Piano Sonata in E flat major, Hob. XVI:52
Recording: Rafał Blechacz