Chopin's mazurkas

Started by jwinter, August 02, 2012, 12:07:21 PM

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Mandryka

No, it's not by any of those pianists. But more importantly thanks for noting your impressions. I'm really interested in whether people think it's a great interpretation, or just a bit of hack work.
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Mandryka

#61


Piotr Andersewsky plays just half a dozen mazurkas - op 59 and op 63. The performances of the op 59s  made me prick up my ears because of the way he contrasts, within each dance, gentle and lyrical passages and more dramatic and explosive passages. That unexpected mood swing is a sort of basic Chopin semantic unit - and Andsersewky is outstanding at managing it.

His Op 63s are particularly personal, I'm not sure I like them.

He also plays op 68/4 very dreamily.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Mandryka

#62


Tamas Vasary plays 5 mazurkas folk dance style - fun, light entertainment, performances to cheer you up.



Youra Guller plays some mazurkas. Imaginative and very natural, unforced sounding performances which somehow never seem to quite take off or say anything special to me, I'm afraid.



Alexis Weisenberg plays three mazurkas. These performances certainly do take off. The high level of commitment and focus is, to me, very clearly communicated. He proposes an aggressive, edgy, tough and explosive vision of the music. Not conventionally beautiful, not lyrical. Is that a problem? I don't think so. I like what he does because I can hear his commitment and intensity and sincerity.



A larger selection of mazurkas this time from William Kapell. Impeccable. Extremely natural rubato, tempo, rhythm. Everything just right, and yet, somehow, it's not faceless playing. He was sometimes criticised for being a perfectionist and hence a bit too cautious sounding, but not here - nothing cautious here.

What it lacks is bittersweet melancholy, wistfulness, yearning, zal. For me that's a deal breaker.
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Mandryka

#63


Bruno Rigutto plays a selection of mazurkas.

Free association concepts - testosterone. cocktail bar. free weights in at the gym, macho stallion.

Brash romantic gestures, burnished beautiful sounds, huge dynamic contrasts, extrovert, no real sense of meloncholy, strong dance rhythms. Yuch.

But . . . this guy Rigutto means it. The sense of inspired total concentration and sheer fire is irresistable.

So bad it's good.



Evgeny Kissin plays a selection of mazurkas in the studio. Immaculate and tasteful dance based performances, not very emotionally interesting, and not very peasant, but still, quite sublime for what they are.

Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Mandryka



Gabor Csalog plays all the Mazurkas. Very authoritative and imaginative performances, which somehow combines a stong mazurka kick, a good feel for how to make the rubato organic, an approach which isn't overly perfumed or overly heavy,  and a real sensitivity to the bittersweet elelent, the zal. I don't know what piano he uses - could well be a an old Erard or Pleyel. I like this - it may deserve a place in the top drawer of complete mazurka recordings - along with Indjic and Flier.

Csalog is a mover and shaker in the world of Chopin studies, he has published an urtext of the mazurkas. The informed approach pays off - as so often the case.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Mandryka

#65


Andrzej Wasowski plays all Chopin's Mazurkas. He makes them in recitatives, dramatic recitatives. He's very aware of the melancholy in the music, and that means that the drama appears psychological.
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Karl Henning

Quote from: sanantonio on June 23, 2015, 09:44:15 AM
Period instrument Chopin Mazurkas

[asin]B00HD0HZQ2[/asin]

There are some noteworthy and lovely things about this recording. First, there is the mellow tone of the restored 1830s Collard & Collard square piano, the kind of instrument on which Chopin’s mazurkas would have been played in drawing rooms all over Europe. Second, there is a seductive intimacy to Asheim’s playing that resonates with the domestic nature of these miniature gems. Third, it is fascinating to hear how the tone quality and short decay of the instrument influence the performance of the music. Asheim uses asynchronised hands and introduces arpeggiated chords at will – much like Chopin is said to have done in his free treatment of his own work (Berlioz, Lenz, Hallé and many others attest to this). (Gramophone, 2014)

Most interesting, thanks.
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

North Star

Quote from: karlhenning on June 23, 2015, 09:46:06 AM
Most interesting, thanks.
+1
Audio samples here.
A pity it's not a complete set.
"Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it." - Confucius

My photographs on Flickr

Mandryka

Quote from: George on June 23, 2015, 09:41:11 AM
A great set! His Nocturnes are lovely as well!

Do you have his preludes? (They're on youtube but I want good sound)
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North Star

Quote from: Mandryka on June 23, 2015, 10:04:43 AM
Do you have his preludes? (They're on youtube but I want good sound)
And I would like to have all of his Chopin in good sound. :)
"Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it." - Confucius

My photographs on Flickr

Mandryka

Quote from: North Star on June 23, 2015, 10:08:12 AM
And I would like to have all of his Chopin in good sound. :)

I can put the other stuff on symphonyshare.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

North Star

Quote from: Mandryka on June 23, 2015, 10:13:46 AM
I can put the other stuff on symphonyshare.
Thanks. There's no rush as I won't be able to enjoy them before August in any case.
"Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it." - Confucius

My photographs on Flickr

Brian

Quote from: sanantonio on June 23, 2015, 09:44:15 AM
Period instrument Chopin Mazurkas

[asin]B00HD0HZQ2[/asin]

There are some noteworthy and lovely things about this recording. First, there is the mellow tone of the restored 1830s Collard & Collard square piano, the kind of instrument on which Chopin's mazurkas would have been played in drawing rooms all over Europe. Second, there is a seductive intimacy to Asheim's playing that resonates with the domestic nature of these miniature gems. Third, it is fascinating to hear how the tone quality and short decay of the instrument influence the performance of the music. Asheim uses asynchronised hands and introduces arpeggiated chords at will – much like Chopin is said to have done in his free treatment of his own work (Berlioz, Lenz, Hallé and many others attest to this). (Gramophone, 2014)

I got to review this for MusicWeb. It really is good, and enjoyable; sometimes Asheim plays far faster than I'd like, but you could argue about that being period practice. Another potentially "authentic" quality is the (very rare, not intrusive) wrong notes.

Mandryka

#73


Maryla Jonas plays some mazurkas. The style reminds me of Gustav Leonhardt in his Froberger for Teldec, and in his Frescobaldi for Philips. That's to say it's both expressive and controled, accurate. The result is abstract and humane - humane because it's expressive, and abstract because the control means that there's never any impression that the pianist is just vaunting her own states of mind. I appreciate this universalised apollonian style a lot, and I'd like to hear the same approach in other romantic music.

The recording on Pearl, which contains some of the mazurkas on this LP, is so marred by poor sound it's hard to appreciate her art in any detail.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Mandryka



Janina Fialkowska plays Chopin's mazurkas. This is some of the the most emotionally subtle, nuanced and varied, the most beautiful, the most focused, mazurka playing I have heard.  It is also the least stormy, the least passionate, the most "tasteful", the most genteel.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

North Star

Quote from: Mandryka on June 25, 2015, 04:40:15 AM


Janina Fialkowska plays Chopin's mazurkas. This is some of the the most emotionally subtle, nuanced and varied, the most beautiful, the most focused, mazurka playing I have heard.  It is also the least stormy, the least passionate, the most "tasteful", the most genteel.
Tempting...
"Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it." - Confucius

My photographs on Flickr

Karl Henning

Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Mandryka

One of the most remarkable things about Fialkowska is the way she takes each reptition in the music and gives it an individual emotional nuance. That, combined with her sense of refinement, nobility. She may be Rubinstein's pupil but she's not distant and aloof from the music like Rubinstein came to be after the war, nor does she have Rubinstein's outgoing showmanship. People who like, e.g., Kulenkampff and Schneiderhan in Beethoven, will find a lot to appreciate in her Chopin. In terms of basic things like tone, she's like a good claret. Her Chopin sonatas are well worth catching, and the Liszt sonata too.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen

Mandryka

#78


These Dresden China mazurkas from Pavel Kolesnikov are like a breath of fresh air. He completely dispenses with the idea that Chopin was wise, profound and surprising. In Kolesnikov's hands the mazurkas are hardly a sustained engagement with the human condition.  There's very little if any dream like meditation, there's very little if any tension between irregular rhythms and fluid song, There ain't much emotional ambiguity, any interesting counterpoint in the music is hardly brought into prominence.

What Kolesnikov gives us is something which sings and dances along without much of a care in the world. In these mazurkas God's in his heaven and all's right with the world - at least the world that's visible from the bourgeois salon.

Kolesnikov makes a sound which suits the superficiality of the interpretation - light and silvery and rather lovely.

These are mazurkas for the background, not to be taken too seriously.

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Mandryka

#79


Dang Thai Son knows how to drive a piano and he knows how to play Chopin. The tone he makes emerge is . . . hammerless and richly colourful; the interpretations are nuanced and sophisticated. The playing is full of a totally natural and rather original rubato. The irony in the music, the ambiguous emotional life of the mazurkas, is well realised. There's not the slightest suggestion of either the bourgeois salon or peasant dance hall. These mazurkas are, in Dang's hands, soul music, not just foot music or voice  music.

This is one of the best mazurka sets on modern piano. What a shame he didn't use a real Chopin piano though!
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