A Portrait of Chopin Lara Melda & Carducci String Quartet

• Frédéric Chopin (1810 - 1849): Piano Concerto No.1 in E minor, Op.11:
• 1 Chopin: Piano Concerto No.1 in E minor, Op.11: Allegro maestoso 20:53
• 2 Chopin: Piano Concerto No.1 in E minor, Op.11: Romance - Larghetto 10:25
• 3 Chopin: Piano Concerto No.1 in E minor, Op.11: Rondo - Vivace 10:49
• Piano Concerto No.2 in F minor, Op.21:
• 4 Chopin: Piano Concerto No.2 in F minor, Op.21: Maestoso 15:32
• 5 Chopin: Piano Concerto No.2 in F minor, Op.21: Larghetto 09:36
• 6 Chopin: Piano Concerto No.2 in F minor, Op.21: Allegro vivace 09:25
• Total Runtime 01:16:40

Info for A Portrait of Chopin

It is with immense joy that I welcome you to A Portrait of Chopin, an album born from my deep love for Chopin’s piano concerti and chamber music. These recordings of his First and Second Piano Concerti, arranged for piano and string quartet, offer a fresh and intimate perspective on these beloved works.

This album is deeply personal to me, as Chopin’s concerti have long been a cornerstone of my musical life, their lyrical beauty and emotional depth resonating in ways few other works do. Yet, I’ve always been struck by their chamber-like qualities – the interplay between piano and orchestra that seemed destined for a more intimate ensemble. Reimagining these masterpieces with a string quartet not only allows these qualities to shine but also invites listeners to experience Chopin in a new light, immersing themselves in the nuanced dialogue of voices, much like in the salons where Chopin himself might have performed. This album is a testament to the enduring versatility of his genius, thriving equally in the grandeur of the concert hall and the intimacy of the chamber.

The Carducci Quartet brings extraordinary depth to this project, creating a dynamic dialogue that feels truly authentic. Our approach was not to imitate an orchestra but to fully embrace the intimacy of a chamber ensemble. This allowed us to explore the conversational interplay between piano and strings in a way that highlights the music’s raw emotional core.

A great joy of this project was recording on the remarkable Shigeru Kawai piano. Its clarity, richness of tone and responsiveness allowed me to explore the full expressive range of these works in ways I had never imagined. I am deeply grateful to Kawai for their generosity and support.

Thank you for embarking on this journey with us, dear listener. I hope these performances bring you as much inspiration and joy as they brought me in bringing them to life.

Lara Melda, piano
Carducci Quartet:
Matthew Denton, violin
Michelle Fleming, violin
Eoin Schmidt-Martin, viola
Emma Denton, cello

Lara Melda
first gained international recognition in 2010 when she won the BBC Young Musician competition, delivering a thrilling performance of Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concerto No.2 with Vasily Petrenko and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Since then, she has performed with the orchestra on multiple occasions, including notable renditions of Mozart’s Piano Concerto K466 and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.3.

She made her BBC Proms debut at the Royal Albert Hall in 2018, performing with the BBC Concert Orchestra under Andrew Gourlay. Other concerto highlights include Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No.2 with the Royal Northern Sinfonia, Mozart’s Piano Concertos K466 and K242 with the Aurora Orchestra, and Chopin’s Piano Concerto No.1 with the Bath Philharmonia. She has also toured New Zealand, performing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.3 with the National Youth Orchestra of New Zealand.

Lara’s recital appearances include Wigmore Hall, Laeiszhalle Hamburg, Les Sommets Musicaux in Gstaad, and the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival. She made her Wigmore Hall debut in 2017 to critical acclaim, returning for multiple sold-out performances.

A passionate advocate for music in Türkiye, Lara made her debut at the Istanbul Music Festival in 2011 and has since performed at major venues across the country. She has received the Promising Young Artist award from Kadir Has University and was named Woman of the Year in Arts by Elele-Avon.

Lara graduated with first-class honours from the Royal College of Music in 2016, where she studied with Ian Jones. She began her piano studies at the age of six with Emily Jeffrey and has worked closely with Alfred Brendel since 2017. In addition to her performances, Lara has made guest appearances on BBC television, including the Proms Extra programme, and in 2020 released her debut Chopin CD to widespread acclaim.

In recent years, Lara has dedicated herself to pioneering innovative and boundary-pushing artistic projects. She curated a critically acclaimed multi-sensory Van Gogh immersive concert experience in collaboration with Exhibition Hub, where the audience and Lara’s playing become intertwined in a journey through Van Gogh’s life – the music and art together evoking different emotions, feelings and memories for each person. Most recently, Lara has been working closely with the Carducci Quartet, performing Chopin’s Piano Concerti in innovative piano quintet arrangements, bringing a fresh perspective to these beloved works.

Carducci Quartet
Described by The Strad as presenting “a masterclass in unanimity of musical purpose, in which severity could melt seamlessly into charm, and drama into geniality,” the award-winning Carducci Quartet is internationally acclaimed as one of the most accomplished and versatile ensembles of today. Each season, the quartet performs core repertoire alongside new works and diversifies further with programmes of film music, pop, folk, and rock, as well as concerts combining music and spoken word. Founded in 1997, the ensemble has won numerous international competitions, including the Concert Artists Guild International Competition and Finland’s Kuhmo International Chamber Music Competition.

The Carducci Quartet regularly performs at prestigious venues worldwide, including the Barbican, Royal Albert Hall, and Wigmore Hall in London; the National Concert Hall in Dublin; Tivoli Concert Hall in Copenhagen; The Frick Collection and Carnegie Hall in New York; the Library of Congress and John F. Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.; St. Lawrence Center for the Arts in Toronto; and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.

In 2016, the quartet won a Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Shostakovich15, an ambitious cycle of Shostakovich’s quartets performed across the UK, North and South America, culminating in a one-day marathon cycle at Shakespeare’s Globe in London. The project was accompanied by recordings of the quartets for Signum Classics.

Education is a vital part of the quartet’s work, earning them a place on the Royal Philharmonic Society Award shortlist for their family concert Getting the Quartet Bug!. The Carducci Music Trust was established to support their outreach efforts in schools and with young musicians.

Booklet for A Portrait of Chopin