David Wilde made his first Delphian appearance in a recital of Chopin’s music recorded live at the Wigmore Hall. Seven recordings and twelve years later, immediately following the death of his wife Jane, David stopped work on a disc of recently written British piano sonatas and turned instead to making a second Chopin programme, in memory of Jane. In his 80th year, David’s breathtaking virtuosity and towering intellect combine in interpretations informed by a long lifetime of study and performance. And in this music, which has been central to his own musical life, David’s performances revel in Chopin’s extremes. This is after all the composer who is reported to have said to a pupil: ‘If I had your strength and could play that Polonaise as it should be played, there would be no string left unbroken by the time I had finished!’ Wilde’s Chopin is not for the timid. These are performances fuelled by passion, combining heartfelt tenderness with deep personal grief.

Praise

‘Wilde offers a determined attack on conventional wisdom… an epic, gnarled and rugged genius shaking his fist at the universe with all the defiance of King Lear … Some may accuse him of assault and battery but others will surely pause to think again about Chopin’s stature. Delphian’s sound is crystal clear and beyond reproach’
— Gramophone

‘[Wilde] is not just at home in Chopin’s music. It is part of his nature, seemingly as necessary and inevitable as breathing … The soundscape summoned by his imagination is vast, craggy, monumental, inexorable. His music making speaks directly of life, of love, and of loss, always with unmistakable wisdom and dignity’
— International Record Review

‘This is the most intense, idiosyncratic, personal Chopin recital to be recorded in years. Always-interesting, pianist David Wilde recorded it at age 80, shortly after the death of his wife Jane…Chopin this weird and personal will always create enemies [but] I, for one, have listened to this album in shock, admiration, fascination, and deepest respect’ 
— Music Web International

‘miraculously glistening work reverberate in striking, pearly play from Wilde’s Steinway, the stunning sound courtesy of producer/engineer Paul Baxter’
— Audiophile Audition

Track Listing

Nocturne in C sharp minor, Op. 27 No. 1
Nocturne in D flat major, Op. 27 No. 2
Polonaise in A flat major, Op. 53

Sonata No 2 in B flat minor, Op. 35:
I. Grave – Doppio movimento
II. Scherzo
III. Marche funèbre: Lento
IV. Finale: Presto

Nocturne in E flat major, Op. 9 No. 2
Prelude in D flat major ‘Raindrop’, Op. 28 No. 15
Fantaisie in F minor, Op. 49