If you would like to vote for this cd please vote HERE

A week ago, on 4^th August, 2014, the album called Dances was released. The author is a very young British pianist, who already has a remarkable career, Benjamin Grosvenor - the 22-year-old pianist who was compared to Evgheni Kissin. His album Dances is included in Vote for the Best Classical Album of 2014 campaign of Radio Romania Music.

The first piece on the album is Partita No.4 in D Major, BWV 828 by Johann Sebastian Bach - this project brings together works inspired by dance music dating from the last 300 years. It is remarkable that, at only 22 years old, Benjamin Grosvenor gets his third album released, by one of the most important record companies at the moment; the contract was signed in 2011 and his first album was released in January 2012 and the second one in January 2013. What is notable about this third album signed by Benjamin Grosvenor, Dances, is the very interesting repertoire selection - a mix of well-known pieces, as well as less known works, all of them interpreted in such a way that makes you think that talent does not take age into account. Although, as I am being subjective, I think I appreciate more the Chopin performed by Jan Lisiecki, another wonder-pianist of 18 years old.

Benjamin Grosvenor included on the album Dances two of Frederic Chopin's works: Andante spianato and Grande Polonaise and Polonaise No.5 in F Minor.

Who is Benjamin Grosvenor?

You must have already heard of Benjamin Grosvenor, especially from the recordings and live transmissions on Radio Romania Music, during the European Music Stage programme; these materials were provided by the European radio stations via the European Broadcasting Union. That is because pianist Benjamin Grosvenor is intensely promoted by BBC: in 2004, Grosvenor was declared, at 11 years old, winner of the BBC young talents contest; at 19, in 2011, he made his debut in the BBC Proms Festival, on the first night, and he had an outstanding success. Grosvenor participated in the BBC Proms in 2012 as well and this year, in 2014, he will perform a concert on 8^th August and a recital on 1^st September. And that would be enough proof for the excellent evolution of the 22-year-old pianist, who included on his his album Dances three mazurkas and a waltz by Aleksandr Scriabin. In 2011, when Benjamin Grosvenor signed the contract with Decca Records, he became the youngest pianist the famous record company had ever worked with and also the first British pianist to record for Decca during the last 60 years. And this happened while Grosvenor was still a student at the Royal Academy of Music in London - he graduated in 2012.

His exceptional talent is also emphasised by his interpretation of an opus by Enrique Granados: Prelude and Eight Poetic Waltzes. The piece that I might call the "supreme waltz" is also included on the album - By the Beautiful Blue Danube, in the form of Arabian concert music signed by Andrey Schulz Evler, on the theme of Johann Strauss II. And the journey through 300 years of history of instrumental dance music ends with Isaac Albeniz's Op. 165, No. 2 and Morton Gould's Boogie Woogie Etude.