Chopin Recordings

[Atriod]

One of the best performances of Piano Sonata 3 I've heard:



I liked his op. 28 but this has surpassed even that. Impressive.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Alice Sara Ott: Tiny Desk Concert.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Alice Sara Ott: Tiny Desk Concert.

Thank you, I really enjoyed listening to that!  I'd heard of her before, but never heard any of her concerts nor recordings before now.  Also, Chilly Gonzales was a new name to me; I quite enjoyed his prelude and loved how she followed it up with Chopin's Raindrop prelude. 

PD

p.s.  Do you have any of either of their recordings Manabu (hope that I spelled your name correctly?)?

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Thank you, I really enjoyed listening to that!  I'd heard of her before, but never heard any of her concerts nor recordings before now.  Also, Chilly Gonzales was a new name to me; I quite enjoyed his prelude and loved how she followed it up with Chopin's Raindrop prelude. 

PD

p.s.  Do you have any of either of their recordings Manabu (hope that I spelled your name correctly?)?

I don't have recordings of these works. But Ott's Chopin Waltzes album sounds good.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Valse No. 2 en Si Mineur, Op. 69 · Emmanuelle Swiercz-Lamoure.

[Brian]

For fans of somewhat faster Chopin:



To me the most successful performance here is the Barcarolle. That may be my personal taste: I have always wanted to hear the Barcarolle played at a slightly faster speed but with great lightness of touch, in the manner of a sung serenade. I'd like to imagine somebody in a gondola with a guitar singing passionate love tunes below somebody's window.  Mertanen is almost that, his tempo is right (8:15) and he is often sensitive enough, but his piano gets clangy and loud and shrill from about 6:00-7:00.

Mertanen's Ballade No. 4 (10:23) doesn't sound fast or rushed; it's just somewhat matter-of-fact, and leaves out all the stopping and smelling roses that many pianists prefer. But his rather plain tone is unhelped by a rather glare-y acoustic - the two things together make for a lack of sensitivity. At big loud climaxes, there is almost an echo effect, not a typical reverb but like the microphones are so close that they're overloaded with sound.

He plays two impromptus - Nos. 2 and 3 - with a similarly plainspoken manner that suits the name "impromptu." The second half of the program is Sonata No. 3, which immediately makes a rather poor impression because of the close, glare-y acoustic of the CD. Most of the rest of the sonata comes off better than those harsh opening pages; the second subject really feels like a respite, the slow movement has poetic flow, the finale is as relentless as it's meant to be.

Overall, I'd say Mertanen is pretty seriously sabotaged by his acoustic here and it's hard to assess his pianism on its own terms. But he seems to be a fairly "classical" Chopin pianist, i.e. placing Chopin in the tradition of his predecessors and not introducing too much romantic syrup. Unfortunately this doesn't leave me likely to recommend his album - not sure how Sony downgraded its production so severely compared to the wonderful Sibelius box set.

[Mandryka]

Attention! Attention! Magnificent op 58 sonata from Irena Mejoueva.

[San Antone]

By far my favorite recordings of Chopin's piano music is "The Real Chopin" box set, played on period pianos.

[Que]

Attention! Attention! Magnificent op 58 sonata from Irena Mejoueva.

On a NY Steinway 1925...   

[Mandryka]

Really intense Chopin, totally "inhabited" by Kaoru Bingham and nicely recorded by Meridian   - just when you think the last thing you need is yet another performance of the preludes, you find you do! This is top T.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Waltzes by Kilenyi. Nice timing and touch.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

I firt came across Megumi Fujita on a recording of a late Tekemitsu piano trio called Between Tides. She brings some of that sense of expanded perceived time to the Chopin etudes. Once heard this recording cannot be unheard.

Unique performance. Restrained and jazzy. Beautiful rhythm. Salon-Chopin, maybe? It would be a very dark salon. I hear some oblique, dark beauty.

[Mandryka]

Unique performance. Restrained and jazzy. Beautiful rhythm. Salon-Chopin, maybe? I hear some oblique, dark beauty.

When I posted that I thought to myself that no one else would like it. She has a piano trio too, with some interesting sounding Schubert and Ravel.

Megumi was a student of Irina Zaritskaya - who recorded the Chopin preludes for Naxos. I sense the same classicism in their approach.  I like it! Wonderfully divisive amazon reviews - always a good sign.



https://www.amazon.com/Preludes-Variations-Brillantes-Frederic-Chopin/dp/B0000013MU#customerReviews

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

When I posted that I thought to myself that no one else would like it. She has a piano trio too, with some interesting sounding Schubert and Ravel.

Megumi was a student of Irina Zaritskaya - who recorded the Chopin preludes for Naxos. I sense the same classicism in their approach.  I like it! Wonderfully divisive amazon reviews - always a good sign.



https://www.amazon.com/Preludes-Variations-Brillantes-Frederic-Chopin/dp/B0000013MU#customerReviews

Thought the same. Not many people may like Megumi's somewhat minimalistic, zen garden-like, approach. It may merely sound like a powerless performance to many listeners. Will check Irina.

[aukhawk]

I first came across Megumi Fujita on a recording of a late Tekemitsu piano trio called Between Tides. She brings some of that sense of expanded perceived time to the Chopin etudes. Once heard this recording cannot be unheard.

When I posted that I thought to myself that no one else would like it. She has a piano trio too, with some interesting sounding Schubert and Ravel.

Very nice, that Megumi Fujita recording.  Thanks for posting (I missed it 1st time around)

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Enjoying the album today:

[Brian]

The one everyone's going to spend all summer talking about!



Retro cover art style (including the logo) from Decca. Lim recently presented these works live in concert at Carnegie Hall - attended by our friend (poco) Sforzando - and it would be interesting to hear how the two performances compare. This album was recorded in mid-December 2023 and seemingly rushed to press by Decca. One more strange housekeeping note: every nickname ever accorded to any of the etudes, and quite a few nicknames that I had never heard before, are listed on the digital release. (e.g. Qobuz says Op. 10 No. 4 is "Torrent", and No. 8 from the same set is "Sunshine")

The best etudes here are characterized by crystal-clear accuracy and balances that reveal the melodic appeal of the works behind or amid the cascades of notes. Lim is so technically assured and confident that he can treat Chopin's challenges as the means, not the end, of the works. This is clear in pieces like Op. 10 Nos. 2 and 4, and Op. 25 Nos. 6 and 9 (the last of which is the jauntiest and cheeriest I have ever heard). Meanwhile the slower, more poetic works occasionally also give Lim a chance to impress: I very much like his way with the fragile beauty of Op. 25 No. 7. The final etude of the 24, meanwhile, is simply relentless - he does make some attempts to differentiate the repetitions, but, basically, it's a shock-and-awe speed run that is meant to show what humans are capable of.

On the other hand, sometimes Lim gets a little too facile with the technical challenges. Op. 10 No. 11 seems "oily" to me, which I guess is another way of saying slick. Op. 25 No. 1 is a dreamy impressionist blur, but at 2:16 maybe a little too rushed to achieve the kind of poetry he is trying to find. Op. 25 No. 4 (which apparently is nicknamed "Paganini"?) is simply too fast to achieve the kind of fun syncopated bounce that is possible in this work (compare to Yukio Yokoyama, a.k.a. Joyce Hatto).

I do not like the rather dry recorded sound, which puts the piano squarely on the left of the acoustic picture and reduces the effect of the bass. This kind of cold, tinny sound quality makes it very hard for a pianist to offer any emotional expression, so in that respect, Lim has been done a disservice by Decca. The label had better address this for future releases if they want to do right by an artist that they (and much of the musical establishment) see as a future superstar. I was more impressed by the live Liszt recording and wonder if it will set a pattern of an artist more interesting live than in studio.

Using the ClassicsToday model of an "artistic quality" rating and a "sound quality" rating, both out of 10, I'd probably go with a disappointed 7/7. Maybe 8/7.

[Holden]

Listening to this now. After the astounding Liszt TE's I have been really interested in seeing what Lim would do with this set. At the moment I'm a bit ambivalent but it's early days. I'm so used to those opening Etudes from Op 10 I've possibly grown a bit blase.

[Mandryka]

Amusing comments from Lim in the booklet

https://static.qobuz.com/goodies/32/000169823.pdf