PIANO CHRONICLES Kit Armstrong | Deutsche Grammophon

On his new album Piano Chronicles, Kit Armstrong presents one of his most ambitious musical journeys to date. Recorded live at Tokyo Bunka Kaikan as part of the Spring Festival in Tokyo 2023, the major 73-track digital album spans more than four centuries of keyboard repertoire, creating a chronological panorama from the late Renaissance to the present day.

The programme opens with music by Byrd, Bull and Farnaby before moving through Jacquet de La Guerre, Bach, Couperin and Handel, and continuing via Mozart, Haydn, Chopin, Liszt, Fauré and Debussy into the sound worlds of Schönberg, Ornstein and Sorabji. It concludes with Rachmaninoff, Takemitsu and Armstrong himself, whose Études de dessin position him not only as interpreter and guide through this musical history, but also as a composer extending it into the present.

On the album, Armstrong places familiar masterpieces alongside rarely encountered repertoire, revealing connections across musical periods, national traditions and compositional styles.

The album is available digitally.