The album cover reminds me of Monk by the Sea, an oil painting that the German romantic artist Caspar David Friedrich (1774–1840) created in 1810, the year when Schumann was born. Schumann has two sides of his personality: young Schumann, who was filled with musical, literary inspirations and dreams, and later Schumann, who was consumed by madness and darkness. Pianist Kun-Woo Paik looks like a traveller who is about to step towards the sky. When you take a closer look, you realize that the landscape isn’t real but a wall. Here the sky, a symbol of universe and infinity, is restraint and restriction.
Paik is a real romanticist who believes in love. Picasso once said it took a lifetime to paint like a child. He also has never lost the boy in him. For this, he became a philosopher. A boy and a philosopher.

坂本龍一が2020年12月12日、無観客のオンラインピアノソロコンサート＜Ryuichi Sakamoto: Playing the Piano 12122020＞を開催。ライブ演出をRhizomatiks、撮影監督をZakkubalanが担当し、都内のスタジオから世界同時配信を行った。このライブはアーカイブなしの一夜限りの配信だったため、二度と視聴することができない貴重な内容となった。そして遂にこの音源を、一年後の同日2021年12月12日にリリースすることが決定。 今夏8月にはこのライブ音源より「Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence - version 2020」が、TBSテレビ『終戦76年プロジェクト つなぐ、つながる』キャンペーンのテーマ曲として使用された。また、今年3月末に発売した『2020S』BOXセットでのみ聴くことができた、無印良品のCM曲「MUJI2020」もライブの終盤に演奏し収録されている。坂本龍一のベスト選曲とも言えるセットリストであり、最新ライブ音源。 ●ライナーノーツ: 大貫妙子氏 (音楽家)・藤原帰一氏 (東京大学大学院法学政治学研究科教授)・ZAK氏 (サウンドエンジニア)

Nelson Freire made his recording debut with the Brahms F minor sonata in 1967. Now, half a century later, he returns to this monumental work.
The perfect repertoire at the perfect moment in his career: still in his prime at 72, Nelson Freire invests Brahms’ music with unrivalled colour and imagination.
This recital presents a portrait of Brahms across his entire oeuvre for solo piano, culminating in a selection of the celebrated late intermezzi.
This is Freire’s first Brahms recording since the 2007 Gramophone Record of the Year concerto set with Riccardo Chailly: still the reference recording.

《勃拉姆斯:第二钢琴协奏曲》是其两次访问意大利后的成果，评论界甚至还认为它所表现的是意大利的“莫春初夏”，美不胜收。这一版本，由德奥钢琴艺术大师巴克毫斯演奏，维也纳爱乐乐团协奏，还收录莫扎特27协奏曲，属上好版本。

01 Piano Concerto No.2 In B Flat Major, Op.83: 1. Allegro non troppo
02 Piano Concerto No.2 In B Flat Major, Op.83: 2. Allegro appassionato
03 Piano Concerto No.2 In B Flat Major, Op.83: 3. Andante
04 Piano Concerto No.2 In B Flat Major, Op.83: 4. Allegretto grazioso
05 Piono Concerto No.27 In B Flat Major, K595: 1. Allegro
06 Piono Concerto No.27 In B Flat Major, K595: 2. Largetto
07 Piono Concerto No.27 In B Flat Major, K595: 3. Allegro

In 2009, at the age of 19, Haochen Zhang became one of the youngest musicians ever to win the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. Since then he has had a busy concert schedule, primarily in his native China and in the U.S.A. but also in Europe where he made his début at the BBC Proms in 2014. Recording has been less of a priority for Zhang, and it is only now that he releases his first studio album, recorded at the Reitstadel, the well-known audiophile venue in Neumarkt in Germany. For this recital, Haochen Zhang has devised a programme made up of works that he feels particularly close to. As he writes in his own liner notes, they 'not only speak to me in a very intimate way, but also connect with one another at a corresponding level of intimacy: as a whole they form a unique musical narrative.' The pieces all share a reflective and introspective quality, albeit reflective in different ways. Opening the disc Schumann's Kinderszenen were described by the composer as 'reflections of an adult for adults and in the closing Op. 117 Intermezzi, Brahms also seems to be looking backwards but with resignation rather than intimate tenderness. Framed by these two, the works by Liszt and Janácek contain overtly dramatic episodes, but contemplative interludes form a recurrent feature of the Ballade, and in Presentiment, the first movement of Janácek's Sonata, the dark forebodings seem to rise up from the composer's own soul.