Chopin's mazurkas

[Leo K.]

I really love this recording from Sergio Fiorentino (Newport Music Festival) - each Mazurka is forceful in a way, with intention and truly like a dance. Same with the other works on this recording!

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Anyone know anything about Maria Christina Mohovich?  Some of these mazurkas seem so strong and characterful they make me think of Tipo's nocturnes. There's a good Schumann Cd too - symphonic etudes.

Likable and interesting performance. Unique rhythm and timing. A little contrarian. I like it! 
P.s. your message box is full.

I really love this recording from Sergio Fiorentino (Newport Music Festival) - each Mazurka is forceful in a way, with intention and truly like a dance. Same with the other works on this recording!

Very interesting!

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Looks like Fou Ts'ong recorded the Mazurkas two times:

The complete set on Sony Classics

I think FT' s performance in the Sony set is unarguably excellent.
As for my personal preference, however, his interpretations are so clear without ambiguity. And I value ambiguity, oblique, nuances and mystery.
I was hesitant to say this months ago. But I just want to post my feeling now.
It's a great performance, but I may like it sometime later.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Jfyi, friends.  Fryderyk Chopin: Best Mazurka Performances 1927-2015.   

Anyone know anything about Maria Christina Mohovich?  Some of these mazurkas seem so strong and characterful they make me think of Tipo's nocturnes. There's a good Schumann Cd too - symphonic etudes.

Again, this is a very interesting interpretation. Though I may not personally love it, the performance is very attractive.

[Mandryka]

Jfyi, friends.  Fryderyk Chopin: Best Mazurka Performances 1927-2015.   

I listened to this when it was released and was impressed, but vaguely remember thinking that a limited number of mazurkas get repeated by different pianists and that makes the experience a bit wearing. But still, very good to be reminded of it, and the older recordings are really interesting to me.

I want to tell you a story. I can find it easily on spotify, but not on qobuz. My media server interface allows me to have it play on spotify and then search for it automatically on qobuz. The qobuz search engine will make suggestions of alternatives if they can't find it -- as you can imagine the suggestions are normally not very helpful. Anyway, when I searched on qobuz for the first track of the Polish Radio recording, that's a mazurka by someone called Henryk Sztompka,  it came up with this




and I must say, I think it's worth hearing some of it once, at least.  Delicate, natual sounding, joyful polish playing. Extremely salon and ultimately annoying because every mazurka seems played in the same way. It's been in the background all afternoon and it's made the house feel like a scene from Chekhov's Three Sisters.

Jfyi, friends. 



Again, this is a very interesting interpretation. Though I may not personally love it, the performance is very attractive.

Again, this is a very interesting interpretation. Though I may not personally love it, the performance is very attractive.

Yes the interpretation is good but the actual pianism, or maybe it's the recording, lacks the refinement and fluidity and colour of the top tier mazurka-wallahs.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

I want to tell you a story. I can find it easily on spotify, but not on qobuz. My media server interface allows me to have it play on spotify and then search for it automatically on qobuz. The qobuz search engine will make suggestions of alternatives if they can't find it -- as you can imagine the suggestions are normally not very helpful. Anyway, when I searched on qobuz for the first track of the Polish Radio recording, that's a mazurka by someone called Henryk Sztompka,  it came up with this




and I must say, I think it's worth hearing some of it once, at least.  Delicate, natual sounding, joyful polish playing. Extremely salon and ultimately annoying because every mazurka seems played in the same way. It's been in the background all afternoon and it's made the house feel like a scene from Chekhov's Three Sisters.

I checked it via streaming, but it doesn't appeal to me now. I'll keep listening to the recording.
Nowadays I am enjoying listening to the recording below. Dark and bluesy side.








Also I think I mentioned the album below a few years ago. I think it's a very good performance.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

P.s. one more I like. The review below says that this was recorded/played on the day JFK was assassinated.

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2006/mar06/Browning_MSR.htm

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Worth hearing, this one, I think, for the piano of course, an 1853 Pleyel very nicely restored, but also for the rhythms - which in Tatiana Larionova's hands seem complicated and natural at the same time. I like it, I hope she does a release with the rest.

I checked the Vol. 2 and it is as wonderful as the Vol. 1. I agree with you that her rhythmical sense is fascinating. 

[Mandryka]

From Peter Jablonski's new release - some thoughts about structure 

All opuses on this recording contain four pieces, with the exception of Op. 7, which contains five pieces. Opp. 6, 7, 17 were all composed between 1830 and 1833 (although Op. 7 No. 4 might have been composed as early as 1825), so they share similarities while also showing a development of style and harmonic language. Mazurkas Op. 6 were written in Vienna during 1830, and signal arrival at a fully mature, fully formed, self-contained and stylised dance, but made very clearly for performance and listening (it is good to remember that when the mazurka was first appropriated by other composers at the time, it was still intended to be danced to). Both Op. 6 and 7 end with two very short mazurkas, like post-scripts or after- thoughts

Chopin himself assembled mazurkas in opuses meant for publication, with a dramaturgical concept that emerges clearly already from Op. 17, undergoes development in Op. 24, and reaches its peak in Op. 41, often considered to be the most cohesive set of all. Chopin balances moods and tempi relationships between the pieces in each set more and more carefully.

What can be observed in Chopin's mazurka opuses are intentional close tonal and motivic relationships between the mazurkas and their contrasting moods. From Op. 17 onwards, the first mazurka sets the stage for the following pieces, with the second or third usually an ebullient, lively oberek, and the last mazurka becoming more complex and extended, and always in a minor key. However, it was not always the case until recently, with the order in Op. 41 differing between various editions. In some, Op. 41 No. 4 appears first, breaking the pattern of the most extended mazurka being the last in the set

[Mandryka]

I checked the Vol. 2 and it is as wonderful as the Vol. 1. I agree with you that her rhythmical sense is fascinating. 

It's very good

[Que]

It's very good

I've lined both volumes up on Spotify! 

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

This compilation from a minor label doesn't provide names of the performers, but some tracks sound very good. Enigmatic album.


 

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Recent listenings:

Terenkova's performance reminds me of the Mohovich above a little. There are unique and likable ideas. She has/presents some attractive images. Definitely she has her own, and well-planned, aesthetic ideas. Listeners maybe divided on this unique recording, however.

Alexandra Sostmann's Mazurkas are likable too while I didn't enjoy her Bach FS. For Mazurkas, I like her timing and tone. For my personal preference, i wish she had some darkness and mystery. Still, likable and memorable performance.

[Mandryka]

Recent listenings:

Terenkova's performance reminds me of the Mohovich above a little. There are unique and likable ideas. She has/presents some attractive images. Definitely she has her own, and well-planned, aesthetic ideas. Listeners maybe divided on this unique recording, however.

Alexandra Sostmann's Mazurkas are likable too while I didn't enjoy her Bach FS. For Mazurkas, I like her timing and tone. For my personal preference, i wish she had some darkness and mystery. Still, likable and memorable performance.

Yes it's a shame that Terenkova hasn't recorded more mazurkas. It's indeed like Wasowsky, not least because of the weighiness of it. Perfumed - reminds me a bit of how Sokolov does them, I need to listen to those Sokolov recordings again to be sure.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efT7a9V8kCc&ab_channel=ADGO

[Mandryka]

And that makes me think of Richter -- which I find myself liking a lot, despite the feeling of enormous strength barely restrained.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DliIBuV3UU&ab_channel=classicalrarities

Someone once said to me that Richter's like a big tank crushing a beautiful wild flower meadow, and that's right. I like powerful dangerous military vehicles - all resistance is obliterated.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Yes it's a shame that Terenkova hasn't recorded more mazurkas. It's indeed like Wasowsky, not least because of the weighiness of it. Perfumed - reminds me a bit of how Sokolov does them, I need to listen to those Sokolov recordings again to be sure.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efT7a9V8kCc&ab_channel=ADGO

Yes, it seems to me, Terenkova partly sounds like Wasowski and partly sounds like Michel Block. I found her Mussorgsky likable as well.

For the Sokolov, as always, his tone is bright.

[staxomega]

Yes, it seems to me, Terenkova partly sounds like Wasowski and partly sounds like Michel Block. I found her Mussorgsky likable as well.

For the Sokolov, as always, his tone is bright.

Michel Block's late in life Mazurkas are like Wasowski, these are both only in small doses for me, those tempi can be a bit much in the Mazurkas. For me Block's best Chopin are his DG recordings from the early 60s.

edit: I haven't heard the Block Chopin Institute CD, last I checked it wasn't on Qobuz.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Michel Block's late in life Mazurkas are like Wasowski, these are both only in small doses for me, those tempi can be a bit much in the Mazurkas. For me Block's best Chopin are his DG recordings from the early 60s.

edit: I haven't heard the Block Chopin Institute CD, last I checked it wasn't on Qobuz.

The DG recording sounds very interesting!

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Fun disc by the philosopher and historian of music in Italy.


 

[Leo K.]

I've been enjoying this Rubenstein set again, been many years. The Mazurkas. A direct, intellectual-like style I enjoy, like a pointillistic painting with light washes to smear the perfection on purpose (in certain areas).