Chopin Recordings

[Leo K.]

Anyone have recommendations for the Scherzos? I'm open to any style or interpretation. My favorite has been Richter in these works, but wow Claudio Arrau too.

[Holden]

Anyone have recommendations for the Scherzos? I'm open to any style or interpretation. My favorite has been Richter in these works, but wow Claudio Arrau too.

Richter for me too. I always liked Rubinstein as well

[Mandryka]

Anyone have recommendations for the Scherzos? I'm open to any style or interpretation. My favorite has been Richter in these works, but wow Claudio Arrau too.

Demidenko for me.

[George]

Anyone have recommendations for the Scherzos? I'm open to any style or interpretation. My favorite has been Richter in these works, but wow Claudio Arrau too.

Pogorelich

[Jo498]

Pogorelich

Yes.
For a bit more straightforward Pletnev's Carnegie Hall Recital, Argerich in 2+3 (although it's a bit "blaster mode" like a lot of her Chopin), probably Freire's from the 1970s.

[Mandryka]

Really you don't want a set. So, for example, you need these

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oKa9UoyeFc&ab_channel=truecrypt
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADtDcNPMckE&ab_channel=truecrypt
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xgeuPM91WE&ab_channel=ArturoBenedettiMichelangeli-Topic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oKa9UoyeFc&ab_channel=truecrypt
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37cBTdWReB4&ab_channel=SSSLAWWWA

I'll think of a 4 later.

[Leo K.]

Thanks a million all - wow I had forgotten about Sofronitsky (I have a lot of his recordings in my collection will get to him asap).

[staxomega]

Anyone have recommendations for the Scherzos? I'm open to any style or interpretation. My favorite has been Richter in these works, but wow Claudio Arrau too.

Richter is my favorite as well, it sounds like the gates of hell opened. Moravec (might tie Richter, it's quite deep and powerful), Pogorelich, and Szidon are others I like. Earl Wild probably has the best sounding recording but I never reach for it often for some reason. Looking forward to revisiting Arrau, I think I only listened to it once when that Complete Philips box came out but can't recall anything about it.

[Mandryka]

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

Listening to some scherzos this afternoon I found Fiorentino's-- I'm not sure I've ever played it before. It is really excellent! All four of them there.  He's got more than enough energy and nimbleness in the lighter sections and he makes it sing like a cello in the lyrical sections. Everything sounds fresh, as though he's improvising.

I think Fioentino in the 1950s and 1960s was a Chopinist  as impressive as Michelangeli and Sofro.

[Holden]

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

Listening to some scherzos this afternoon I found Fiorentino's-- I'm not sure I've ever played it before. It is really excellent! All four of them there.  He's got more than enough energy and nimbleness in the lighter sections and he makes it sing like a cello in the lyrical sections. Everything sounds fresh, as though he's improvising.

I think Fioentino in the 1950s and 1960s was a Chopinist  as impressive as Michelangeli and Sofro.

Thanks to you Howard I went back to my Early Recordings box set and found his Scherzos which I now realise that I had never listened to before. (The issues with box sets I suppose). As you said, these are excellent and once again, as in a lot of his Chopin, he displays that individual approach he has to Chopin's music. I'll have to go back to Richter to make a comparison.

[Mandryka]

What do you guys make of von Koralyi's op 58 sonata? I think it's one of the top tier ones, as they say

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-4uWiETHpIs

[Florestan]

Very good Sonata 2 on disc two (of three) above. Mandryka, you will love the contrapuntal voicing, in case you haven't heard it already I can let you have it.

[George]

What do folks think of this guy's Nocturnes?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPmZorRo2vQ

[Mandryka]

What do folks think of this guy's Nocturnes?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPmZorRo2vQ

I listened to op 62/1, which is probably the nocturne I know best. He was being deep, he makes it a Brucknerian nocturne. He had some nice little ideas, the playing at around 5:20 was beautiful and memorable. Not for me , partly because the timbre he produces isn't warm and fuzzy enough for my taste this afternoon,  partly because I don't do deep ever, partly because I like a bit more relief, a bit more dynamic variation throughout rather than just loud bits now and then, and partly because he doesn't really make it sing like a cello, which is a great shame.

Sorry, I didn't mean to do a demolition job, but that's what came out!

[Mandryka]

https://open.spotify.com/track/6ZlSQkr3uVdTs6QiSFQfV0?si=9eb319613fca4575

Here's an op 62/1 I like, you'll probably hate it George!


(Very annoying to see these things that I've paid huge amounts of money for now almost free. Grrrrrr.)

[George]

I listened to op 62/1, which is probably the nocturne I know best. He was being deep, he makes it a Brucknerian nocturne. He had some nice little ideas, the playing at around 5:20 was beautiful and memorable. Not for me , partly because the timbre he produces isn't warm and fuzzy enough for my taste this afternoon,  partly because I don't do deep ever, partly because I like a bit more relief, a bit more dynamic variation throughout rather than just loud bits now and then, and partly because he doesn't really make it sing like a cello, which is a great shame.

Sorry, I didn't mean to do a demolition job, but that's what came out!

No problem. The set was recommeneded by someone who did a big survey of the Nocturnes. I am not a fan of it.

[George]

https://open.spotify.com/track/6ZlSQkr3uVdTs6QiSFQfV0?si=9eb319613fca4575

Here's an op 62/1 I like, you'll probably hate it George!


(Very annoying to see these things that I've paid huge amounts of money for now almost free. Grrrrrr.)

To be honest, I don't like it very much at all. I have his live set of the Nocturnes, as it was highly recommended by someone I trust and it has yet to click for me.

[Todd]

In these preludes, Cortot pulls that off, so does Rosenthal and Koczalski.

Cortot does that in almost every recording, and certainly when he was at his peak (eg, the 20s-30s).  Artists who recorded in the 78s era typically sound more spontaneous and less studio bound by the very nature of how they recorded.

[Mandryka]

Cortot does that in almost every recording, and certainly when he was at his peak (eg, the 20s-30s).  Artists who recorded in the 78s era typically sound more spontaneous and less studio bound by the very nature of how they recorded.

I think this is a really valid point.

[Mandryka]

To be honest, I don't like it very much at all. I have his live set of the Nocturnes, as it was highly recommended by someone I trust and it has yet to click for me.

The sound on those DG nocturnes which Ciani released is so disappointing that I too have found it hard to appreciate them.