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Discover the Beauty of Japan
With his ‘Chopin Solo Piano 12’ series, Yukio Yokoyama showcases the legendary composer’s major works. A world-class pianist in his own right, Yokoyama breaths fresh life and emotion into some of the greatest classical solo piano pieces ever written.
To get as close as possible to the actual sounds Chopin created, Yokoyama plays a Pleyel piano, as used by the master.
Pleyel et Cie (Pleyel & Co.) is a French piano manufacturing firm founded by the composer Ignace Pleyel in 1807. The firm provided pianos to Frédéric Chopin, and also ran a concert hall, the Salle Pleyel, where Chopin performed his first, and last, Paris concerts. Pleyel's major contribution to piano development was that they were the first to introduce a metal frame in piano construction. Pleyel pianos were the choice of composers such as Debussy, Saint-Saëns, Ravel, de Falla and Stravinsky and of the pianist and teacher Alfred Cortot.
Frédéric François Chopin (February 22 or March 1, 1810 ~ October 17, 1849) was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of French-Polish parentage.
Considered one of the great masters of Romantic music, Chopin was born in Żelazowa Wola, a village in the Duchy of Warsaw. A renowned child-prodigy pianist and composer, he grew up in the city of Warsaw. Chopin completed his music education there, composing many mature works before leaving Poland in 1830 at age 20, shortly before the November 1830 Uprising.
Following the Russian suppression of the Uprising, he settled in Paris as part of Poland's Great Emigration. During the remaining 19 years of his life, Chopin gave only some 30 public performances, preferring the more intimate atmosphere of the salon; he supported himself by sales of his compositions and as a piano teacher. After some romantic dalliances with Polish women, including an abortive engagement, from 1837 to 1847 he carried on a relationship with the French writer Amantine Dupin. For most of his life, Chopin suffered from poor health and died in Paris in 1849 at age 39.
The vast majority of Chopin's works are for solo piano, though he also wrote two piano concertos, a few chamber pieces, and music to accompany some Polish texts. His piano works are often technically demanding, with an emphasis on nuance and expressive depth. Chopin invented the instrumental ballade and made major innovations to the piano sonata, mazurka, waltz, nocturne, polonaise, étude, impromptu, scherzo and prélude.
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