Chopin's mazurkas

[Mandryka]

Eugene Indjic: 57 Mazurkas.
Impressive, and very subtle, music without flashiness. Sensitive performance with a silky tone.

This was Joyce Hatto!

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

This was Joyce Hatto!

Thank you for the info. Hatto stole from Indjic, not the other way around, correct?

https://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/25/opinion/25iht-edutton.4712389.html

[Mandryka]

Thank you for the info. Hatto stole from Indjic, not the other way around, correct?

https://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/25/opinion/25iht-edutton.4712389.html

Indeed. I always liked the Hatto recordings, so I went out of my way to obtain the original pianists' products. I remember buying the Indjic mazurkas at great expense before the days of streaming and downloads. It's a good set, natural and not forceful.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Indeed. I always liked the Hatto recordings, so I went out of my way to obtain the original pianists' products. I remember buying the Indjic mazurkas at great expense before the days of streaming and downloads. It's a good set, natural and not forceful.

Thank you for the info. I didn't know about the scandal.

[Mandryka]

Thank you for the info. I didn't know about the scandal.

This is the key information resource on the Hatto affair - I wasn't involved in the work which led to the investigations but I know people who were. It was a Herculean task because some of the recordings had been electronically changed - speeded up or slowed down.

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

The Hatto Chopin Walzes - that's Arthur Moreira-Lima - is especially wonderful IMO.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

This is the key information resource on the Hatto affair - I wasn't involved in the work which led to the investigations but I know people who were. It was a Herculean task because some of the recordings had been electronically changed - speeded up or slowed down.

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

The Hatto Chopin Walzes - that's Arthur Moreira-Lima - is especially wonderful IMO.

No offense to the victims, but I wonder if the scandal rather enhanced the victims' prestige and popularity. Now I want the Hatto's disc of this recording! 

I will check the Moreira-Lima. Also the below are the reviews by Tom Deacon, the producer of Philips Great Pianists of the 20th Century series. He provided totally different evaluations on the two discs of the same recording of Chopin etudes:

Yuki Matsuzawa: Faceless, typewriter, neat as a pin but utterly flaccid performances with small, tiny poetic gestures added like so much rouge on the face of a Russian doll. ... Nothing could possibly equal the faceless, spineless, ever-so-tasteful performances of Ms. Matsuzawa. She is the very model of Lily Tomlin's much admired tasteful lady.

Hatto: My oh my, this is a beautiful recording of Chopin's music. The pieces flow so naturally and so completely without precious effects that you might, for a moment, think that there are no other ways of reading the music. ... In Op. 10 No. 1 the right hand is fluent, flawless, clear as a bell, but the real story is the LH, which carries the interest of the piece anyway. The central episode in No. 3 is dramatic, but the drama doesn't overwhelm the A section, either the first or second time round. The C♯ minor, a knucklebuster if ever there was one, is played as a true Presto, but punctuated with all kinds of wondrous LH details. The first black key etude has fluttering RH detail, but again, it is the LH which is truly eloquent. ...The A flat major, Op. 10 No. 10, restores all of Chopin's carefully notated differenciation between one section and another, a veritable study in the ability to vary detached sounds.

[Jo498]

I think I bought Matsuzawa's very cheap twofer (Etudes, 2nd sonata and "fillers") after it turned out that the Etudes had been the "Hatto". I witnessed the Hatto scandal from the sidelines but never heard any of the supposed Hatto recordings. It's good but overall mostly elegant, I'd say. I never really paid attention to op.10 and have no clue about piano technique but compared to an extraordinary op.25 like Sokolov's or Francois' crazy interpretations "tasteful" in a slightly derogatory sense doesn't seem totally off the mark. Although it's obviously embarrassing that Deacon praised the very same record under the Hatto label.

[Mandryka]

I think I bought Matsuzawa's very cheap twofer (Etudes, 2nd sonata and "fillers") after it turned out that the Etudes had been the "Hatto".

Only in 4 etudes in the first Hatto etudes.

[Jo498]

As I said, I never paid close attention or heard any "Hatto" before it blew up. I am not even sure but it could have been that the otherwise unfamiliar Matsuzawa was mentioned/praised after the Hatto scandal blew up. It could also be that I just couldn't resist a twofer priced below 10 Euros...

[Mandryka]

Eugene Indjic: 57 Mazurkas.
Impressive, and very subtle, music without flashiness. Sensitive performance with a silky tone.

I listened again to op 50 and op 56. What I noticed most was how contrapuntal the music is, whether this is something that Indjic has a special feel for I can't say, but I appreciated what he does for that reason.

I noticed he's recorded some other Chopin, and indeed some Schumann, and I listened to the Chopin third sonata and the Davidsbundlertanze. The sonata has a fantastically tempestuous and passionate first movement - similar to the Florestan music in Davidsbundlertanze. The Schumann Eusebius music in DBT is more an erotic dream than a peaceful and pastoral reverie - same for the largo of the sonata.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Only in 4 etudes in the first Hatto etudes.

I shouldn't have said two discs of the same recording. My apology.

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 don't know anything about the instrument, but her interpretation and performance are amazing.

[Florestan]

I listened again to op 50 and op 56. What I noticed most was how contrapuntal the music is, whether this is something that Indjic has a special feel for I can't say, but I appreciated what he does for that reason.

I noticed he's recorded some other Chopin, and indeed some Schumann, and I listened to the Chopin third sonata and the Davidsbundlertanze. The sonata has a fantastically tempestuous and passionate first movement - similar to the Florestan music in Davidsbundlertanze. The Schumann Eusebius music in DBT is more an erotic dream than a peaceful and pastoral reverie - same for the largo of the sonata.

I must listen to them, thanks for the tip.

[Brian]

Eugen Indjic is reliable, and this discussion spurred me to put on his Chopin mazurka cycle from track one. Fabulous stuff. Expressive liberty but with a sense of "right"-ness. Which I guess means good taste (or that he and I share taste).

Indjic also makes some of the really weird 45 second mini mazurkas stick out in very striking ways.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

So far, the albums I like are below.

Gyorgy Ferenczy
Gábor Csalog
Eugene Indjic
Tatiana Larionova

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

The Hatto Chopin Walzes - that's Arthur Moreira-Lima - is especially wonderful IMO.

Likable, sophisticated album. Nuanced, non-flashy performance with fine rhythms. I have only few waltz albums, but I like the recording of Cziffra. For a new record, Alice Sara Ott.

[Mandryka]

Likable, sophisticated album. Nuanced, non-flashy performance with fine rhythms. I have only few waltz albums, but I like the recording of Cziffra. For a new record, Alice Sara Ott.

This was the last one I really got in to - and maybe Fiorentino. I guess we're all too cool for Lipati.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJaYyTu-Kpk

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

This was the last one I really got in to - and maybe Fiorentino. I guess we're all too cool for Lipati.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJaYyTu-Kpk

Sorry for my ignorance, but please tell me the title of Florentino album.  Thank you.

[Mandryka]

Sorry for my ignorance, but please tell me the title of Florentino album.  Thank you.

There are two sets of recordings of waltzes, one here -- this is the one I was listening to

https://www.discogs.com/release/12771496-Sergio-Fiorentino-Plays-Chopin-19-Waltzes-And-The-3-Ecossaises-Op-72c

And one here, which I have but haven't really explored much

https://www.discogs.com/release/8214622-Sergio-Fiorentino-Early-Recordings-1953-1966-Fiorentino-Edition-Volume-4

[staxomega]

I've been interested in hearing the mazurkas that Szymon Nehring has recorded (there are two Chopin Institute CDs) because he has one of my favorite performances of op. 25/12, played so tenderly that it sounds more like Rachmaninoff than a standard fare Chopin etude. This performance might be on one of those discs if they're taken from the Chopin competition he was in.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

There are two sets of recordings of waltzes, one here -- this is the one I was listening to

https://www.discogs.com/release/12771496-Sergio-Fiorentino-Plays-Chopin-19-Waltzes-And-The-3-Ecossaises-Op-72c

And one here, which I have but haven't really explored much

https://www.discogs.com/release/8214622-Sergio-Fiorentino-Early-Recordings-1953-1966-Fiorentino-Edition-Volume-4

I won't be able to find these recordings.    I will look for his other recordings. The Zimerman is a high-class, delicate and nuanced performance. There is a classy cuteness as well. It is like a fine meal at a 4-5 star French restaurant. It is great, but you may occasionally miss a greasy, salty food at a popular pizzeria in your town. Anyway, it is a great recording.

I think the valses in the recording of Milosz Magin are worth listening to. There is something attractive. His mazurkas are fine as well.