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For his eighth and latest Deutsche Grammophon album, Canadian pianist extraordinaire Jan Lisiecki has chosen to return to the music of Frédéric Chopin. Following on from Works for Piano & Orchestra (2017) and Chopin: Études (2013), Chopin: Complete Nocturnes features profoundly personal interpretations of some of the most beautiful and best-loved pieces ever written for solo piano. Lisiecki is perhaps most celebrated for his masterfully sensitive and refined interpretative approach. His newest release – recorded last October at Berlin’s historic Meistersaal – not only captures the spirit of Chopin’s pianism, but also represents the time and circumstances in which it was made, as the pianist himself explains: “I’m the first to question why we should record something that has been recorded many times before. But music only lives through performance and is different every time we hear it, even when it’s a recording. I think there was something for me to say with this album. It reflects on the last year and my thoughts on that as well as on the escape and understanding that music gives us.” Frédéric Chopin distilled the essence of song into his Nocturnes, drawing inspiration from the expressive force of Italian opera and the freedom of Polish folk music. Taking a form whose name had been coined by the Irish composer John Field, he developed and elevated it to create a richly varied series of works that would span his entire career. His miniatures reveal not only the originality of his writing – even in the earlier pieces – but also the way in which his style evolved over time. “These remarkable pieces invite you to think and feel whatever you want. There’s no ‘right’ response to them, other than the one you’re having.” - Jan Lisiecki