Chopin Project

The album features a selection of works and genres key to Chopin’s work: mazurkas, waltzes, preludes, nocturnes and etudes – in transcriptions for cello quartet commissioned by PCQ from three composers: Sabina Meck, Piotr Moss, and Leszek Kołodziejski.

Polish premiere: November 17, 2023; world premiere: January 5, 2024

Publishers: NFM, CD Accord

Performers: Polish Cello Quartet

We present to you an album with transcriptions of works by a composer close to our hearts. We have always wanted to hear Fryderyk Chopin’s piano works in a cello version, and we were inspired by Auguste Franchomme’s arrangements and recordings of the Novi Singers vocal quartet. In our opinion, extraordinary songfulness and emotionality distinguish Chopin’s music in a special way. Due to the idiomatic similarity of the cello to the human voice, we dared realise this project – one of the craziest and most original in our careers. Working on Chopin’s repertoire was a great artistic adventure for us. We share its results with joy. Enjoy!

Polish Cello Quartet

The album of the Polish Cello Quartet with Chopin’s works is another exciting chapter of this never-ending story. It brings transcriptions for cello quartet by Sabina Meck, Piotr Moss, and Leszek Kołodziejski. Attention is drawn to the rare performance line-up itself: four cellos. In the context of Fryderyk Chopin’s life and work, this line-up has a unique value, and it is the specificity of the instrument. Well, Chopin liked the cello and willingly composed music for this instrument. Moreover, he was friends with cellists. As a youth, he used to visit Antonin, the hunting lodge of Prince Antoni Radziwiłł – an arts patron, politician, cellist and composer. Chopin appreciated the Prince’s compositional talent, they played music together, and to expand their shared repertoire, the young Fryderyk composed the Polonaise in C major for cello and piano (later he added the Introduction). Chopin’s close friend was the excellent French cellist Auguste Franchomme, also a composer and teacher. He transcribed selected works by Chopin and performed with him. It was to him that the Polish composer dedicated his last great masterpiece, the Sonata in G minor, op. 65 for piano and cello. Thus, it is the cello that can be considered – after the piano and before the human voice – to be the second important instrument in Chopin’s work. This allows the cello arrangements of his pieces to be considered historically “privileged”.

Artur Bielecki