A cult record if there ever was one, Patrick Cohen’s Satie goes far beyond any one of the many versions of this music on the market. It is simply something else. Possibly the best CD Glossa has ever produced, it has provoked controversies of all sorts since its release in 1998, not only due to the interpretation and the instrument used, an 1855 Érard piano, but also because of the polemical essay which accompanies the recording.

Chopin’s mazurkas are perhaps the most elusive branch of his output. Their most obvious and dangerous challenges to performers lie in their rhythmic subtlety. Of all his music, none is more intimately linked with the accents and inflections of the Polish language, but this isn’t to say that only Poles can do them justice. What they do require, though, is a rhythmic buoyancy and flexibility of line which transcends all national characteristics. Like Chopin himself, they are compounded of irony and paradox. The role of the second beat is crucial to all of them, and to their specific identity as dance music (though Chopin’s were never intended for dancing), yet if they’re to succeed in performance the pianist must neutralise the divisive menace of the bar-line, so that the last thing we think of is counting.

Frederic Chopin published 45 mazurkas for piano during his lifetime, while 13 more were published posthumously. This genre was principally based on the traditional Polish fok dance, although Chopin imbued it with a very personal approach. In the summer of 1997, Patrick Cohen sat down at an original erard piano from 1855 and recorded them all. His deep knowledge of the music and of this very particular instrument, together with his unique performing style, make this collection of Chopin Mazurkas a set to return to once and again.

Mozart’s six earliest keyboard sonatas were written down by him in early 1775. After a first volume (also on Glossa) containing the first four of them, this album contains nos. 5 and 6 (KV 283 and KV 284), plus his next sonata (no. 7, KV 309) composed probably in 1777. Again recorded on an original Walter fortepiano built in Mozart’s lifetime, the kind of instrument he was very familiar with, this performance by Patrick Cohen brings together all his expertise with period pianos and the aesthetic context of the music.