Without any doubt this session of the Queen Elisabeth Piano Competition 2021 will stay fixed in our memories. In spite of the constraints imposed by...

Without any doubt this session of the Queen Elisabeth Piano Competition 2021 will stay fixed in our memories. In spite of the constraints imposed by the health crisis (absence of the public, number of semi-finalists and finalists reduced by half), 58 candidates presented themselves to play before the members of the jury. The media maintained exceptional visibility at the competition right from the first round (television, radio, internet and social media) and the audiences confirmed an ever growing passion for the Competition. In this 4 album-box set you will find the 6 laureates of this session, that saw the Frenchman Jonathan Fournel win First Prize; you can enjoy his performance in Brahms’ Second Concerto with the Belgian National Orchestra conducted by Hugh Wolff, as well as the whole of his recital in the semi-finale. The Russian Sergei Redkin, second laureate, is present in the Third Concerto of Rachmaninov as well as the set piece by Bruno Mantovani. Two concertos by Mozart with the Orchestre de Chambre de Wallonie conducted by Frank Braley are also on the programme: No. 23 (KV 488) by Vitaly Stakirov (5th Prize) and the No. 27 (KV 595) with the Japanese Keigo Mugawa (3rd Prize). Chamber music is also well represented, revealing notably Tomoki Sakata (4th Prize) in the Liszt Sonata and Dmitry Sin in Schumann’s Concerto without orchestra. These artistes, all of them exceptional pianists, who tomorrow perhaps will appear on the world’s leading concert platforms, can be discovered here in their first ever recordings.