Chopin Recordings

[SonicMan46]

Nice, Dave!  I've got about five discs of Ohlsson playing Chopin, and I like them all a lot.

Hi Karl - thanks for the 'thumbs up' - just have a couple singles myself, so appears to be a good choice at the great price!  Dave

[George]

Now enjoying:



I always thought his Chopin recordings were special, but I never realized how special:

Born in Lwow (now Lviv, Ukraine) of an aristocratic family (his father was a baron and his mother a princess)[1]. His father's family owned estates in Podolia and sugar refineries and mining interests in Silesia. His mother, Princess Maria Glinska Wasowska was Professor of Piano at the Warsaw Conservatory. She, in her turn, had studied piano with Richard Baumeister, a pupil of Franz Liszt.

Andrzej began his piano studies with his mother at the age of four. In 1931 he was admitted to the Warsaw Conservatory where he studied with Margerita Trombini-Kazuro, who had studied with one of Liszt's disciples, Giovanni Sgambati. He graduated from the conservatory in 1939 with one of its highest awards, the Grand Prix d'Interpretation.

Lwow, where he was living, was overrun by the Russian army in 1939. On hearing him play, they packed him off to give concerts in the Soviet Union where he performed 186 times, giving up to nine concerts in a three day period[2]. While in the Soviet Union, he studied with Konstantin Igumnov in Moscow.

He returned to his native city just before the Germans captured it. He was permitted to give concerts to benefit war relief organisations, but was not permitted to play Polish music. Since the Nazis forbade performance of Polish music, Wasowski played clandestinely in basements for handfuls of Poles who risked their lives to hear Chopin[2]. When he refused to play concerts for the Nazis, he was put to work in a slave battalion.

After the Second World War, all of his family's possessions were seized by the communists, and the 22-year-old Wasowski became a stateless refugee. He was the winner of the 1951 Marguerite Long International Piano Competition in Paris and the 1952 International Competition in Bolzano. In 1956 he married Countess Maria Grocholska He toured extensively in Europe, North and South America, and became a Venezuelan citizen.

In 1965 he and his family moved to the USA, but found it difficult to secure work as a concert pianist, so in the Fall of 1967, took up a teaching post at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma. His letter of References included a handwritten from Leopold Stokowski.

We would know nothing of his playing were it not for the enterprise of a small US record company, Concord Records, who recorded Wasowski playing Chopin's complete mazurkas in 1980 and complete nocturnes in 1989. These recordings were hailed by critics. Bernard Sherman, reviewing the mazurkas for the New York Times[3] described Wasowski as one of those artists the broad international public neglects but critics and colleagues rave about. Another critic, Charles Michener[4] praised the Mazurkas as full-blooded and intoxicating, almost shocking in their use of rubato, the freedom with which they shake the pieces' rhythmic structures.

Critical acclaim for the nocturnes (recorded in just two days, 30 September and 1 October 1989) was equally marked. The recording received the 1997 Critics Choice Award from National Public Radio, and the critic Jessica Duchen writing in BBC Music Magazine (May 1997) said These performances of the Chopin Nocturnes, recorded in 1989, are really rather extraordinary... a glorious singing tone of great clarity, eloquence and purity, with beautifully balanced accompaniment and inner voices... they moved me to tears.

Me too.

[Karl Henning]

Aye, those are beauties, George.

[Antoine Marchand]

Any opinion about Ashkenazy as Chopin's performer? I guess this has been commented before, but this thread is too much long... 

[George]

Aye, those are beauties, George.

Morning! 

You have them, karl?

[Karl Henning]

I do, though it's a while since I've cued them up, George.

[George]

I do, though it's a while since I've cued them up, George.

You're a lucky man, for they are rare now. Do you have the Concord or Finnidar releases?

[Karl Henning]

Hm, I'll need to check!

[Holden]

Any opinion about Ashkenazy as Chopin's performer? I guess this has been commented before, but this thread is too much long... 

Excellent in most cases - VA seems to be able to bring out the essence of this composer. The top VA Chopin recordings IMO are:

Polonaises

Waltzes

Etudes

Ballades/Scherzos

[Drasko]

Any opinion about Ashkenazy as Chopin's performer? I guess this has been commented before, but this thread is too much long... 

Mostly agree with Holden on this. Very good overall, some of it excellent (etudes, polonaises).

[Antoine Marchand]

Thanks, Holden & Drasko. Your words confirm my own impression some days ago, when I was listening to some variations. It was a very rewarding experience, so I think I will try his complete cycle; apparently there is a lot to enjoy there. 

[KeithW]

P.S. Now I need to decide on the other one? 

I bought both the Ohlsson and Real Chopin Project boxes last year, courtesy of tips on the Super Duper bargains thread (although your success with the former makes my $70 feel expensive!). I benefitted from Amazon mixing up records for the Real Chopin box set and single disc of songs, and they honored my order for the former at $10.

My wife is Polish and often remarks that one should be able to visualize the country when listening to Chopin.  My overall sense of the Real Chopin set is that there is an emotional connection which I don't always find (I have around half a dozen cycles).  Of course, it is not uniformly high, but generally I have been very impressed.

You are probably aware that the performances were given on period pianos, Erard and Pleyel, and on occasion works are duplicated in the set, one on each piano.  The pianists were winners, back to the 1950s, of the International Chopin competition.  I especially enjoyed the orchestral works, conducted by Frans Bruggen.

The high point for me is the quality of the recording - exemplary.

Would I buy it again?  For $10 - in an instant.  For today's prices?  Certainly.

Much more information, if you wish, at http://en.chopin.nifc.pl/institute/publications/musics

[Mandryka]

Szymon Barto's preludes Cd. This recording is great, personal musoc making. Revealing too, in terms of colours and harmonies.

[SonicMan46]

I bought both the Ohlsson and Real Chopin Project boxes last year, courtesy of tips on the Super Duper bargains thread (although your success with the former makes my $70 feel expensive!). I benefitted from Amazon mixing up records for the Real Chopin box set and single disc of songs, and they honored my order for the former at $10.

My wife is Polish.......

You are probably aware that the performances were given on period pianos, Erard and Pleyel, and on occasion works are duplicated in the set, one on each piano.  The pianists were winners, back to the 1950s, of the International Chopin competition.  I especially enjoyed the orchestral works, conducted by Frans Bruggen.

The high point for me is the quality of the recording - exemplary.  Would I buy it again?  For $10 - in an instant.  For today's prices?  Certainly.

Hi Keith - sorry for the delay in my response - must have just not noticed the post?  But, thanks for the information; I knew about the pianos and the main reason that I would like to have the box; so, just checked on the Amazon MP and for some reason one of the vendors (who I've not used before) had it listed for $35 (including the S/H fee of $3) - 96% satisfactory ratings so expect a 'new' box and at that price!

Concerning Chopin, a local professional classical pianist and teacher (who has Polish ancestry) has (or will soon) complete a film about Frederic Chopin which should interest all of his fans!  We donated some money (along w/ many other locals who know her) to help her complete the project.  Her name is Pamela Howland and her website is HERE - we will receive an invitation to the premier and a DVD of the documentary.  Her husband, Wendell Meyers, is also quite interesting, he was a potter, musician, etc. then decided to go into medicine/radiology - he was a resident that I helped train a number of years ago now!

Thanks again - Dave

[George]

Szymon Barto's preludes Cd. This recording is great, personal musoc making. Revealing too, in terms of colours and harmonies.

Yes, he is quite special in those works:

For the Preludes, I'd say get the Sokolov, download the Fiorentino (google is your friend) check out Barto and of course grab one of the earlier Cortot's, the 1926 or the 1933.

[Lethevich]

Question: every source for this disc seems to list track 9 as "op. 20", but designates it a nocturne. As Chopin's Op.20 is a scherzo, what is the deal here?

[asin]B0032CJ3M4[/asin]
Edit: hearing it, it seems to be the c-sharp op.posth. Idk where the op.20 came from.

[mc ukrneal]

Question: every source for this disc seems to list track 9 as "op. 20", but designates it a nocturne. As Chopin's Op.20 is a scherzo, what is the deal here?

[asin]B0032CJ3M4[/asin]
Edit: hearing it, it seems to be the c-sharp op.posth. Idk where the op.20 came from.

Perhaps they mean No 20 (not Op 20)? Looking it up in wiki, it says no 20 was not originally a nocturne, but is included with publications and recordings of them.

EDIT:
MDT writes:
CHOPIN

Nocturnes
François Chaplin

Disc 1
1- Nocturne Opus 48
2- Nocturne opus 15
3- Nocturne opus 27
4- Nocturne N°20 en ut dièse mineur (opus posthume, 1830)
5- Nocturne opus 32

Disc 2
6- Nocturne opus 55
7- Nocturne opus 37
8- Nocturne opus 9
9- Nocturne opus posthume n ° 19 en mi mineur opus 72
10- Nocturne opus posthume
11- Nocturne opus 62

[Lethevich]

Oh, that makes sense, somebody mixed up the terms. Danke!

[Herman]

I was hoping this was not the case.   So, for clarification, did he record ALL of Chopin in the 30's and what are the exact volumes I need to get.  I have Vol 2



but that is it.

I'd recommend getting the Mazurkas, the Nocturnes and the Concertos.

I disagree with Mandryka in that I think Rubinstein is very good in the Nocturnes.

[Herman]

I have a couple of Ohlsson's Chopin recordings for Arabesque, and although they are flawless I find them vaguely uninteresting.

Perhaps he'd done much better if he had recorded just one or two discs of his favorite Chopin  -  the pieces that really keep him up at night.