British Pianist Benjamin Grosvenor Decca Debut out February 28

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Major American recital tour this March with dates in Miami, Washington, Detroit, Cincinnati and New York

“Stunning debut….Grosvenor’s playing exudes joy and spontaneity, seeming to release rather than to interpret the music…At 19, Grosvenor is already a pianist of uncommon distinction.” BBC Music Magazine
On February 28, 2012, the Decca debut album from Benjamin Grosvenor will be released. Grosvenor is the first British pianist to sign to Decca Classics since Moura Lympany and Clifford Curzon over half century ago. The self-titled album is a personal choice of virtuoso solo piano music, built around Chopin’s four Scherzi and Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit, and including Chopin Nocturnes and shorter pieces by Liszt – sequenced to trace the development of pianistic virtuosity through these three great masters.

The 19 year-old Grosvenor first rose to prominence when he won the piano section of the BBC Young Musician of the Year 2004 at the age of just 11 – the youngest ever finalist in the competition. Shortly afterwards he made his debuts at the Royal Albert Hall and Carnegie Hall and has continued to develop an international presence in Europe, Asia, and the USA, working with some of the world’s finest orchestras and conductors, including Vladimir Jurowski and fellow Decca artist Vladimir Ashkenazy. He is also a member of the prestigious BBC New Generation Artists program.

Grosvenor’s debut was released in the UK in summer of 2011 to coincide with his televised appearance as the youngest First Night soloist the Proms had ever seen. The album was described by Gramophone as “not just fine performances for a youngster. They are fine performances, full stop.” The Times concurred, “Decca didn’t make any mistake in signing Benjamin Grosvenor.”

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