Rachmaninoff: Variations on a Theme of Chopin; Chopin: Sonat

SOMM RECORDINGS is delighted to announce the return of pianist Peter Donohoe to the label following his acclaimed complete survey of Mozart’s Piano Sonatas with a dazzling new recital coupling Rachmaninoff – on the 150th anniversary of his birth in 1873 – and Chopin.“Rachmaninoff is unimaginable without Chopin,” asserts Russian music expert Marina Frolova-Walker in authoritative booklet notes that point to Rachmaninoff’s long engagement with Chopin’s music in the concert hall and recording studio. Donohoe’s recital explores the intricate connections between the two composers, beginning with Rachmaninoff’s Op.22 Variations on a Theme of Chopin. They embrace “a broad array of styles and genres, in a kind of theatrical quick-change routine that leaves us marvelling at the extreme contrasts in music that still embraces the same theme”. A work Rachmaninoff played at both his graduation recital in 1883 and his last public recital, six weeks before his death in 1943, Chopin’s Second Piano Son