Chopin Recordings

[Brian]

I have the Hatto CD (of course!) You must mean Matsuzawa.

http://www.farhanmalik.com/hatto/chopin1.html

Oh shoot, I got my Yuki(o)s confused. That's embarrassing.  I even went and listened to the wrong person's etudes to compare them directly...

I was listening on headphones so the left/right issue was really clear vs. in a room where it would probably feel more natural.

[(poco) Sforzando]

Amusing comments from Lim in the booklet

https://static.qobuz.com/goodies/32/000169823.pdf

Phew! maybe he should stick to playing the piano. To me, op. 10/1 sounds like a study in major-key arpeggios accompanied by a deep bass, and 10/2 like a study in minor-key chromatic scales for the weaker 3-4-5 fingers. Etc.

[(poco) Sforzando]

By far my favorite recordings of Chopin's piano music is "The Real Chopin" box set, played on period pianos.

Why so? because it's played on period instruments, or because of some unique qualities of the interpretations?

[(poco) Sforzando]

The one everyone's going to spend all summer talking about!



Retro cover art style (including the logo) from Decca. Lim recently presented these works live in concert at Carnegie Hall - attended by our friend (poco) Sforzando - and it would be interesting to hear how the two performances compare. This album was recorded in mid-December 2023 and seemingly rushed to press by Decca. One more strange housekeeping note: every nickname ever accorded to any of the etudes, and quite a few nicknames that I had never heard before, are listed on the digital release. (e.g. Qobuz says Op. 10 No. 4 is "Torrent", and No. 8 from the same set is "Sunshine")

The best etudes here are characterized by crystal-clear accuracy and balances that reveal the melodic appeal of the works behind or amid the cascades of notes. Lim is so technically assured and confident that he can treat Chopin's challenges as the means, not the end, of the works. This is clear in pieces like Op. 10 Nos. 2 and 4, and Op. 25 Nos. 6 and 9 (the last of which is the jauntiest and cheeriest I have ever heard). Meanwhile the slower, more poetic works occasionally also give Lim a chance to impress: I very much like his way with the fragile beauty of Op. 25 No. 7. The final etude of the 24, meanwhile, is simply relentless - he does make some attempts to differentiate the repetitions, but, basically, it's a shock-and-awe speed run that is meant to show what humans are capable of.

On the other hand, sometimes Lim gets a little too facile with the technical challenges. Op. 10 No. 11 seems "oily" to me, which I guess is another way of saying slick. Op. 25 No. 1 is a dreamy impressionist blur, but at 2:16 maybe a little too rushed to achieve the kind of poetry he is trying to find. Op. 25 No. 4 (which apparently is nicknamed "Paganini"?) is simply too fast to achieve the kind of fun syncopated bounce that is possible in this work (compare to Yukio Yokoyama, a.k.a. Joyce Hatto) [EDIT: Yuki Matsuzawa, not Yukio Yokoyama].

I do not like the rather dry recorded sound, which puts the piano squarely on the left of the acoustic picture and reduces the effect of the bass. This kind of cold, tinny sound quality makes it very hard for a pianist to offer any emotional expression, so in that respect, Lim has been done a disservice by Decca. The label had better address this for future releases if they want to do right by an artist that they (and much of the musical establishment) see as a future superstar. I was more impressed by the live Liszt recording and wonder if it will set a pattern of an artist more interesting live than in studio.

Using the ClassicsToday model of an "artistic quality" rating and a "sound quality" rating, both out of 10, I'd probably go with a disappointed 7/7. Maybe 8/7.

My copy has yet to arrive, but "relentless" is not a bad word to describe what I heard at Carnegie in the Revolutionary and the last three of 25. Yunchan has his elements of poetry, as in the excellent 25/7, but from the Decca clips I've heard online so far, it feels like he's trying to play some of these etudes faster than anyone ever has, and I want them to breathe a little more. Of course, none of this will hold water with the Yunchan Lim Fan Cult - that is, Fan Club - on Facebook, for whom the young man can do no wrong and no other pianist can do anything right. But I'm not about to throw away Pollini, Perahia, Ashkenazy, Zayas, etc. (I have "Hatto" too, but have yet to listen to "her.")

Based on what I've heard so far, YCL's pianism is better suited to Liszt and Rachmaninoff than to Chopin.

However, here's a version of the "sunshine" etude, that is 10/8 with its F major arpeggios, which I particularly like for its grace and humor, from British-Indonesian pianist George Harliono who did not get past preliminaries in the Cliburn 2022: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Sda-6AgOTw&t=1s

And a version from Beatrice Rana of the G# minor in thirds, which may not be to all tastes because of its tempo fluctuations, but which I find original and inventive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pQYEigYKpg