Chopin Recordings

[JBS]

I'm the one who started that--my problem is that his approach for the Nocturnes was too brisk and too quick.
My personal favorite in the Nocturnes is Rubinstein's 2nd recording. Among recent takes I like Lisiecki.

BTW that only applies to Fou's Nocturnes. I did like the rest of that Sony set: the Mazurkas do deserve the praise people give them.

[Jo498]

Sokolov has the best performances I've heard for op. 25, I don't have the CDs in front of me at this house so I can't check the recording date, the one I like is the Naive CD coupled with a superb set of Preludes and a very good Piano Sonata 2. That set of Preludes probably cracks my top 3.

These are the ones I meant as well. According to the discs the Etudes were recorded live 1995, St.  Petersburg and the Preludes 1990 in Paris. I am actually a bit confused. I had the op.25+35 before on a single opus 111 disc and I thought the Etudes had been recorded earlier but I am probably just wrong. The Preludes are also very good, I find some of them a bit too slow and weighty.

It's been too long I heard them but Samson Francois' Etudes and Preludes are also noteworthy, albeit quirky at times.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

This also - and also very good I think
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LE_ftBizu0E

Sounds very good!

[Holden]

The mazurka-like comment from me is because of the amount of rubato he uses instead of following the longer harmonic lines

That is one of the best descriptions of the overuse of rubato in Chopin that I have read.

[staxomega]

The Preludes are also very good, I find some of them a bit too slow and weighty.

Indeed, Sokolov treats them like miniatures carved into granite with an overall dark conception. Ugorskaja also plays them in a similar way, very dark, and like individual pieces that just happen to share the same opus number rather than like Arrau who sees them as a single work (thank you Howard for the live Prague, the more I've listened to that the more I've liked it). For me my favorite cycle is a balance of both styles.

[Jo498]

So who gets that balance best for the Preludes in your opinion?
I am still a bit puzzled about the rec. dates. I could have sworn that Sokolov's Preludes were considerably more recent than the Etudes, not vice versa...

[Scion7]

I don't have any 'single' best - there are many extremely satisfying recordings.  Tamas Vasary, for example.  And so on.

[Mandryka]

Have you guys heard Rosenthal?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFHOuyeb3L8&ab_channel=Beckmesser2

[George]

For me, in the Preludes its Sokolov (Naive, Live), Moravec (Supraphon) and Lucchesini (EMI.)

[Holden]

I've heard and got some excellent recordings of the Preludes and of course they encompass a variety of approaches to the music. My universal favourite is from Rafael Orozco was only just released on CD despite being recorded in the late 1960s.



I have the Sokolov and rate it and would also recommend a listen to:

Bolet live at Carnegie Hall (GPOTTC)

Fiorentino - ranks alongside the Orozco for me

...and also this from Claudio Arrau though I don't think it's available anymore. However, you can hear it on YT. It's from the 1960 Prague Festival. The Schumann on the disc is from the 1976 festival.

[Mandryka]

How about this one?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__hMZL1uosw&t=319s&ab_channel=incontrariomotu

(Kind of the opposite extreme from the Rosenthal I posted.)

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

How about this one?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__hMZL1uosw&t=319s&ab_channel=incontrariomotu

(Kind of the opposite extreme from the Rosenthal I posted.)

Thank you for the post. I enjoyed the music.

https://www.igor-zhukov.info/index.html


 

[Mandryka]

Thank you for the post. I enjoyed the music.

https://www.igor-zhukov.info/index.html


 

Very serious.

[Holden]

Thank you for the post. I enjoyed the music.

https://www.igor-zhukov.info/index.html


 

After hearing the first four Preludes Fiorentino came to mind as, like his renditions, these are very personalised performances. What does stand out is the the articulation (#8 is a great example) and by taking some of the faster works a bit slower this is allowed to come out. This might make it onto my list of recommended performances. It's not in any way mainstream but it seems to work.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Inspired by the Zhukov, listening to these albums.

[staxomega]

So who gets that balance best for the Preludes in your opinion?
I am still a bit puzzled about the rec. dates. I could have sworn that Sokolov's Preludes were considerably more recent than the Etudes, not vice versa...

Posted in the Mazurkas thread: https://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,20796.msg1448065.html#msg1448065

Thanks, just ordered it after giving the waltzes another playthrough. I think I'd characterize them as small scale, not much extremes in any expressive technique, but not as subtle as Alice Sara Ott either. Smiling performances

Who do you chaps like in the Preludes? My favorites below, and no Howard Shelley vs Leslie Howard cockups here I promise  All of these compiled through notes and relistening in cases where I only had stuff written down on paper which predated GDocs.

Moravec (VAI) - very... Moravec, tumultuous, deep powerful playing
Andrea Lucchesini - dark, like imagine his Adagio of the Hammerklavier now in the Preludes
Sokolov (Naive) - serious, bordering on gravely serious
Argerich - what you'd expect from Argerich, forward moving
Russell Sherman - fluid, among the less weird Sherman recordings. You can hear him talk about the Preludes a bit on a Youtube interview with David Dubal
Rafael Orozco - huge thanks to Holden for mentioning these Preludes. He is just a phenomenal pianist (Rachmaninoff Piano Concerti, Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Brahms op. 5 sonata)

Ts'ong - still evaluating

I suppose in terms of balance, capturing it as a single work it would be a tie between Lucchesini and Moravec (VAI). I wanted to re-evaluate Ugorskaja, that's why it's not on that list, she would easily be third as I think she more than anyone else really captures the bleakness in this music but like Sokolov that makes it sounds more carved in granite. Overall it still feels incredible to hear, especially at a proper recital volume levels, definitely the most emotionally charged set I've heard, and peerless in pieces like the F sharp minor.

Very serious.

They were written in a dark time in his life, the illness that would eventually kill him (if we are to believe it was TB, and reading about his sx leads me to believe this was what it was), in a cold foreign land, and in accommodations he described as a tall cement coffin. This is why I find takes like Ugorskaja really captures the essence of op. 28 and ones like Arrau (Philips and Prague), Ts'ong, Russell Sherman, Beatrice Rana are all quite enjoyable in their own ways but for me will never reach the best.

[Mandryka]

They were written in a dark time in his life, the illness that would eventually kill him (if we are to believe it was TB, and reading about his sx leads me to believe this was what it was), in a cold foreign land, and in accommodations he described as a tall cement coffin. This is why I find takes like Ugorskaja really captures the essence of op. 28 and ones like Arrau (Philips and Prague), Ts'ong, Russell Sherman, Beatrice Rana are all quite enjoyable in their own ways but for me will never reach the best.

I enjoy piano music which sounds spontaneous and fresh at the moment. In these preludes, Cortot pulls that off, so does Rosenthal and Koczalski.

[Mandryka]

People in the streets unwittiingly whistle Chopin, Mozart or Beethoven --- yet never Schoenberg, Berg or Webern --- there is poetical justice after all...

i hum the opening of Moses and Aaron to myself quite often - the bit where Moses sings Einziger, ewiger, allgegenwärtiger, unsichtbarer und unvorstellbarer Gott...!

[Florestan]

i hum the opening of Moses and Aaron to myself quite often - the bit where Moses sings Einziger, ewiger, allgegenwärtiger, unsichtbarer und unvorstellbarer Gott...!

Never mind, I had one of those moments... 

[Mandryka]

Posted in the Mazurkas thread: https://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,20796.msg1448065.html#msg1448065

I suppose in terms of balance, capturing it as a single work it would be a tie between Lucchesini and Moravec (VAI). I wanted to re-evaluate Ugorskaja, that's why it's not on that list, she would easily be third as I think she more than anyone else really captures the bleakness in this music but like Sokolov that makes it sounds more carved in granite. Overall it still feels incredible to hear, especially at a proper recital volume levels, definitely the most emotionally charged set I've heard, and peerless in pieces like the F sharp minor.

They were written in a dark time in his life, the illness that would eventually kill him (if we are to believe it was TB, and reading about his sx leads me to believe this was what it was), in a cold foreign land, and in accommodations he described as a tall cement coffin. This is why I find takes like Ugorskaja really captures the essence of op. 28 and ones like Arrau (Philips and Prague), Ts'ong, Russell Sherman, Beatrice Rana are all quite enjoyable in their own ways but for me will never reach the best.

Ugorskaja is good, no doubt about it. Thanks for prompting me to liste to it.