Chopin: The Complete Études

Austrian pianist Aaron Pilsan tackles Chopin’s complete Études — Op. 10, Op. 25, and the three posthumous Trois Nouvelles Études — in a recording he describes, alongside his earlier Bach Well-Tempered Clavier project, as a lifelong dream: a complete musical journey in which, as with Bach, each piece carries its own distinct character while belonging to a larger architectural whole. In a wide-ranging conversation with Kevin Kleinmann included in the booklet, Pilsan traces the arc from Op. 10’s direct, almost explosive virtuosity through Op. 25’s more introspective, melancholic terrain to the posthumous études’ cerebral focus on 3-against-4 polyrhythm — arguing throughout that technical mastery exists only to free the music’s deeper poetic and harmonic content.

Pilsan also draws a striking line from his own deep engagement with Bach to Chopin, hearing in the Études the same layered polyphony and left-hand architectural foundation, and contrasts Chopin’s introverted, intimate temperament with Liszt’s extroverted, rock-star virtuosity. Recorded at the Beethoven Haus in Bonn, and recorded in published order to preserve the cycle’s tonal and emotional arc, the album is dedicated to Pilsan’s teacher, Karl-Heinz Kämmerling.

Aaron Pilsan – piano