The Chopin Etudes on Record
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 ก.ย. 2024
- Link to Jed’s Gramophone Collection Chopin Etudes Survey: www.gramophone...
Links to selected recordings:
1. musicandarts.c...
2. www.prestomusi...
3. • Alfred Cortot plays Ch...
4. • Alfred Cortot plays Ch... - เพลง
Wow! Had never even heard of John Browning before and just finished listening to his recording and its instantly up there with my favourites. Really clicked with me. Thanks for brining it to my attention!
So happy you enjoyed the John Browning Chopin Etudes. He was a formidable American pianist, and one of Van Cliburn's fellow Juilliard students. Perhaps Browning was best know for giving the world premier of Samuel Barber's Piano Concerto. I wrote the booklet notes for the Sony/BMG box set devoted to his complete RCA and Columbia Masterworks albums, which also includes previously unreleased material.
Thank you Mr. Distler! Although I’ve been listening to classical piano for some time, I still feel like a novice. Outside of Ashkenazy, Pollini, and recently Perahia that was pretty much it. I will be buying the downloaded version of Cortot, thanks to you as well as the Cuban pianist. In closing, I have a sneaky request, even an idea of future podcast: recommended recordings of Grieg Ballade? Again, thank you so much for these podcasts.
You got it, I'd be glad to do a Grieg Ballade podcast. Give me some time to mull over the recordings, because there are so many, that I'll have to really study for this one!
Simon's Etudes are super rewarding, pictoresque, refreshing, in some way Yunchan's recording resembles them. And btw don't worry, Lim's debut doesn't start to feel contrived after like 50 listenings. But who knows what is going to happen in the future!
Had no time to catch up with all of the recommendations but one is clearly standing out for now, even more than Simon's: Yuki Matsuzawa's. Refined. Sublime. In the best taste. I have no words. How is it possible the CD is so obscure? That's probably because of the scandal. But it's still not available on TIDAL or youtube I pay for, nor on Deezer. Only on Spotify and Apple Music. A shame. Really, I've never heard better op. 10 no. 7. It's so clear and purposeful and discreet about the novelties as you mentioned, so effortlessly articulated. The most impressive thing I have listened to in a couple of days, weeks, her Etudes. Gorgeous.
And never enough of promoting Cziffra's rendition. The chances he takes there are breathtaking I'd somwhat pretentiously say. I have always loved him, some mistakes and his nonchalant approach towards the score notwithstanding.
Oh, and I know someone who plays the etude faster and imo better than Ashkenazy. But everything in time.
Thanks so much Mr. Distler! Very interesting survey and fun to listen to. There’s one favorite of mine that wasn’t mentioned and that would be Augustin Anievas. It was interesting to hear that Josef Hoffman stated that no single pianist could master all 24 études at the same level of excellence. This leads me to ask you a question which you may not have an answer to. Do these wonderful recordings involve large numbers of cuts and pastes? Being that the études are so technically demanding, are we getting a moderate to heavily edited finished product? I know this will only be a guess on your part. I asked this question because I think that young pianists and instrumentalists in general can be highly discouraged by the superhuman perfection of these players. Knowing that they got some help might cheer them up a bit. I do realize by the way that the Cortot recordings were the most likely to have been unedited due to their recording date. Thanks so much for your wonderful discussions.
The Cortot recordings were made in the days before tape editing, of course. Once tape became readily available from around 1949 on, everything could be subject to editing. As such, I have no doubt that most studio versions of the Etudes recorded from the early 1950s onward involved editing, and commercial live versions as well. Thank you for mentioning Anievas, although I have reservations about his Etudes; read my review here: www.classicstoday.com/review/review-6429/?search=1
Augustin Anievas was a favorite of mine in my early teens because he is a great musician And it was found in a discount bin. Pollini i read about so i got it. He is classically refined:does anyone cry or feel much moved. Ive heard Pollini only once in live concert. Moscheles and Heller and Kalkbrenner really should be played more often. I know more know and wouldnt put Cortot at top of any of my lists except n da SaintSaens Waltz etude.Elan,spark,vivacity. Id like to hear Cortot lecturing on Beethoven Sonatas which was recorded! My favotite is the Asian-American pianist Peter Liu cant remember name!
Excerpts from the Cortot Beethoven lectures were released as part of Warner Classics' 40 CD Cortot Anniversary box. It's still available and very reasonably priced for the number of discs; you can easily find it on Amazon.com
I'm surprised you didn't include the very impressive Backhaus cycle-which I think was the first integral set. The first complete set was by Alexander Uninsky. Have you heard that? My overall top choice is Cortot.
I've always felt Backhaus to be technically wonderful, yet not consistently satisfying on a musical basis. Uninsky's Etudes are uneven, but I think his Mazurka cycle has been underrated. As I stated at the start of the episode, I chose the particular cycles I discussed for their overall consistency, whether or not their individual styles are to all tastes.
Zayas is fantastic as are two other women. Chochieva and Fialkowska who is a natural Chopin player.
I agree!
Thank you for another exciting, even daunting list: given the date, it puts me in mind of many September first-days, when I would enter a new classroom expecting familiar faces but finding only one or two. If I might ask a two-part question: as I mentioned in a comment on another podcast, Horowitz once spoke of the difficulty (he said impossible) of playing some of the etudes on a modern piano. He (him with the shellacked hammers and ultra-light action) may have been extenuating his own incomplete essay of the works, but do you feel there is any artistic merit, other things being equal, in performing the etudes on, say, a Pleyel of Chopin’s generation (as, for instance, did Mr Ohlsson in his Hyperion cycle)? I guess you haven’t said specifically if any of these performances were on period instruments. And second, have you ever created one of your “ideal” cycles with either opus, so as to capture some of the enthusiastic incompletists like VH and Richter? Thanks again. (I see there is a new JD salon concert available: I’m off!)
Ohlsson's Etudes were recorded an instrument closer to a modern concert grand. I'm all for recordings of the Etudes on period instruments, providing that both the instrument and the pianist are in good repair. Try John Khouri on an 1832 Broadwood (Music and Arts) and Tatiana Shebanova on an 1849 Erard (NIFC). And yes, I did broadcast two episodes of Between the Keys with "ideal" Chopin Etude cycles. These aren't necessarily my favorite performances of each Etude, but all are interesting, and there are no weak links. Here's a link to the Op. 25 webcast: www.wwfm.org/2021-02-01/chopins-etudes-op-25-on-between-the-keys-february-2nd-and-3rd. I noticed that the Op. 10 webcast was never uploaded; I'll try to do that.
Cortot SS, and some of his earliest recordings will never make me disrespect his technique.
100% accuracy isn’t perfect technique. To me, technique is about the colors and sounds you can produce.