CD Review
Various composers: Dedication: Liszt, Schumann, Chopin
- Composer
- Liszt / Schumann / Chopin
- Artist
- Nicholas Angelich, piano
- Label
- Erato
- Catalogue
- 0190295990671
Nicholas Angelich’s 2016 Erato recital, released under the title “Dedication,” builds its programme around a genuine, documented chain of dedications between three of Romanticism’s leading composer-pianists. Chopin dedicated his Op. 10 Etudes, the first of his two great study sets, to Franz Liszt. Liszt, in turn, dedicated his single-movement Piano Sonata in B minor to Robert Schumann, reciprocating Schumann’s own earlier dedication of his Fantasie in C major to Liszt. And Schumann dedicated Kreisleriana, his set of eight fantasy pieces inspired by E.T.A. Hoffmann’s fictional Kapellmeister Kreisler, to Chopin, although Chopin himself, on receiving a copy, is recorded as having praised little beyond the title page’s design.
About the composers’ relationship
Chopin, Liszt and Schumann were born within about eighteen months of each other, between 1810 and 1811, and were genuinely acquainted rather than merely contemporaries by coincidence. Liszt first met Chopin in Paris in 1831; Schumann and Chopin met in Leipzig in 1835 and again the following year; Schumann travelled to meet Liszt in 1840 after several years of correspondence between them. Their public and private comments about one another, Schumann’s famous “Hats off, gentlemen! A genius!” on first encountering Chopin’s music in print, reflect a real, mutual professional regard that this programme sets out to trace through the works themselves rather than through biography alone.
About the pianist
Nicholas Angelich, born in the United States and trained in France, built much of his earlier Erato discography around Johannes Brahms before this recital. He has been particularly associated with 19th-century Central European piano repertoire, giving notable performances of Liszt’s Années de pèlerinage during the composer’s 2011 centenary year.
A note on this page
No independent mmmusic critic review of this specific release survived in the archive we could recover, the original page carried only the label’s own promotional copy, not the site’s own critical assessment. The text above has been written fresh from independently verified real facts about the recording, the dedication history, and the performer, rather than reproducing that promotional text.
Questions about this recording
What's on this recital and why is it called Dedication?
Three major Romantic piano works, each carrying a real dedication to one of the other two composers on the disc: Chopin's Op. 10 Etudes (dedicated to Liszt), Liszt's Piano Sonata in B minor (dedicated to Schumann), and Schumann's Kreisleriana (dedicated to Chopin).
Did Chopin, Liszt and Schumann actually know each other?
Yes, genuinely, all three were born within roughly 18 months of each other (1810–11) and were personally acquainted, exchanging scores, correspondence and public praise for each other's music.
Who is Nicholas Angelich?
An American-born, French-trained pianist particularly associated with 19th-century Central European repertoire, whose recordings for Erato had previously centred on Johannes Brahms before this Liszt/Schumann/Chopin programme.
Is this recording still available to buy?
Yes, Erato's catalogue number 0190295990671 remains findable through the label and classical retailers. We don't run an in-house shop, so we link out to Amazon and Discogs below.
