A Century Of Romantic Chopin

Belongs on the shelves of every piano collector, and anyone seriously interested in Chopin interpretation on disc.

To mark the composer’s bicentennial year Marston has issued this elegant four CD set, splendidly transferred and with an excellent booklet, as ever. The box contains 90 selections played by 65 different pianists, and the dates of recordings range from two Paul Pabst 1895 private cylinders - which you can also find in Marston’s amazing Julius Bock recordings set - to 2003. The selections are cannily chosen, mostly to promote the idea of individuality and romantic freedom in Chopin performance, but also for exceptional rarity value as well, so some are live performances, and some you will assuredly not have Read more heard.

The first disc is given over to the Etudes. I listened with a deliberately vague eye on the track running order, so was often unaware who was performing; I kept crafty looks to a bare minimum. The results were often surprising. Why, for example, don’t I admire Rosenthal’s 1929 Edison of the Op.10 No.1 more than I’m supposed to? Is it the left hand’s drumming away and the quixotic hand balancing? I found Cortot’s A minor puckish and delightful. Rosita Renard is only so-so in her 1949 Etude in E, but Sidney Foster - you’d need to be a real pianophile to know him - turns in an amazing performance of the C sharp minor from a recital at Indiana University in 1952; powerful, passionate, bringing out voicings in a most unusual and personalised way. His Black Key from a similar recital a decade later is less incendiary but still very good indeed. Let’s have more from this remarkable musician. Is there much? Backhaus is warmly textured, while Planté gives us a pecking start to the Seventh in C on his 1928 French Columbia, before an increasingly hectic drive to a mirth-inducing close. Odd - but interesting, and he was 89 at the time. Nicolai Orloff’s left hand has ‘gone fishing’ in his 1945 Decca of the Eighth; was it Decca or Orloff, or both? Solomon’s F minor is truly poetic, Garrick Ohlsson’s Tenth attractive, Irene Scharrer ripples away delightfully in her 1933 Columbia. Rubinstein’s Revolutionary must have come via a hand-held cassette. Op.25 offers similar points of interest and contention; more from that Rubinstein recital, Ginzburg in 1952, Anda in wartime Berlin, Svetlanov in Moscow in 1980, and very good too, as anyone who knows his Medtner will have been prepared to aver. Ought I to tempt you further with the names of Barere (the World Program Service Impromptu), Saperton, von Sauer, Friedman, Tagliaferro - where does one start, or stop?

These are the kinds of riches you will find in this box, one for a lifetime’s contemplation and enjoyment. Of course, you won’t like everything, but that’s only to be expected. I don’t go a bundle on Earl Wild’s manicured and erratic G minor Ballade in the second disc. I did like the supercharged central panel of Bolet’s live 1972 New York Ballade in F minor; combustible but in dodgy cassette sound. Natan Brand, rather like Foster, brings out myriad shadings and voicings in his live 1983 recital, in a very original characterful performance. Scharrer is heard again, this time in the B flat minor Scherzo. Clearly the compilers Gregor Benko and Ward Marston have a soft spot for this very underrated English pianist. Up pops Karl Ulrich Schnabel. I have to admit I wasn’t expecting his C sharp minor Scherzo to be this good - but it most certainly is. The three selected Preludes from Op.28 are all from Levitzki from his famous 1929 session whilst another seven are in the variable hands of Guiomar Novaes (NYC, 1966, live), who is far too insistent with the Raindrop. I assume the 1935 BBC broadcast of Rosenthal in the (incomplete) Largo of the Third Sonata is via the Leech Collection - or am I wrong?

The third disc opens with the famous live Hofmann/Barbirolli Chopin Concerto in F minor, of which we hear the second movement. Moiseiwitsch’s Barcarolle wasn’t issued on 78 though it’s been on CD. There’s an unpublished Electrola of Lubka Kolessa (Berlin, 1936) in a Mazurka, and we also hear a splendid conjunction of Russian talents; Sofronitsky and Feinberg side by side in Mazurkas. Antonietta Rudge is heard in a 1934 Brazilian disc, though no details are provided about it; was it a private issue? Especially lovely is another Rubinstein performance, this time of the Op.34/1 Waltz taken from the Hollywood Bowl in 1950. Try to hear the ever-wonderful Arthur Loesser in his electrical test from 1925 of the A flat Waltz Op.42. Good sound, great performance. We also hear from the typically puzzling Michael von Zadora in the Minute waltz.

Francesco Libetta’s Op.27/2 Nocturne is the most recent performance, should you want to know, and it’s in the final disc. So too is a very early example of Alicia de Larrocha’s art - the Op.32/1 Waltz (Barcelona, 1932). Marcel Ciampi’s C minor waltz Op.48/1 is very slow but very beautiful, with an exquisite tone, audible despite the high ration of surface noise. Incidentally faithful Marston subscribers receive a ‘Lagniappe’ disc, and this year it was Ciampi’s complete 78rpm solo recordings, than which things don’t get very much better. Fania Chapiro bucks the trend with a 1982 Fidelio performance on an 1820 Broadwood. Tracks 11-18 are labelled ‘historic recordings’ given that they range from 1895-1922. The roll-call - mouths prepare to salivate now - reads; Paderewski, Grünfeld, Rachmaninoff, Michalowski, Busoni, those Pabsts and then an out-of-sequence rarity - Bartók playing an incomplete Nocturne Op.27 No.1 from 1939.

Well then. This set belongs on the shelves of every piano collector, and anyone seriously interested in Chopin interpretation on disc.

-- Jonathan Woolf, MusicWeb International

The broad range of pianists selected for this remarkable anthology (astutely and intelligently curated by Gregor Benko and Ward Marston) are represented by performances recorded between 1895 and 2003, almost all of which strike a delicate balance in regard to freedom, taste, proportion, and classicism. More importantly, each artist makes Chopin come alive.

Ignaz Friedman's celebrated 1936 E-flat Nocturne Op. 55 No. 2 is the ultimate case in point, but the same holds true of Marcel Ciampi's less known yet grippingly sustained Op. 48 No. 1 C minor Nocturne. I first listened through the four discs without identifying the pianists, and when I learned who they were I often was surprised. Few of Earl Wild's studio Chopin efforts come close to the live G minor Ballade here--so outlandish, yet so inevitable, octave doublings and all. That delightfully fleet Op. 30 No. 4 C-sharp minor Mazurka, with a color change on every beat, belongs to the late, undervalued Joseph Villa. I swore that the amazingly fast and fiercely authoritative C-sharp minor Op. 10 No. 4 Etude was Sviatoslav Richter in his prime--but no, it's Sidney Foster.

An Op. 25 No. 5 Etude with hot liquid cantabiles and rubatos that stretch out to high heaven yet never snap? The young Geza Anda. An impetuous, unbuttoned C-sharp minor Scherzo? None other than Karl Ulrich Schnabel. And who would have credited this sensitive, texturally three-dimensional C-sharp minor Op. 25 No. 7 Etude to conductor Evgeny Svetlanov in one of his rare recorded keyboard outings?

Jorge Bolet's blazing live 1972 Fourth Ballade leaves his logy Decca studio version in the dust, while a few wrong notes don't matter at all when the 87-year-old Arthur Rubinstein plays the F major Op. 25 No. 3 Etude with more poetry and character than anyone else (listen to how easily he tosses off the final upward run, and slightly slows down to place the last few notes--what a sense of timing!).

We expect Friedman's rollicking, slightly madcap A-flat Polonaise to be full of textual add-ons, but not the normally cool and patrician Solomon to transpose a couple of the A major "Military" Polonaise's left-hand chords down an octave. Those who buy Harold C. Schonberg's damning assessment of Vladimir de Pachmann need to know his best recordings, such as this very straightforward and rather forceful rendition of the E minor Op. 72 No. 1 Nocturne, recorded in 1927 when the pianist was nearly 80. And there's nothing remotely erratic or sloppy concerning Paderewski's crystalline, gorgeously nuanced A minor Mazurka Op. 17 No. 4. I'd also apply this praise to an unpublished test pressing featuring Arthur Loesser in the A-flat Waltz Op. 42.

Listeners, of course, will discover their own surprises, as well as reconnect with old favorites in properly pitched, newly minted transfers. Buy this release while you can, and hope that Ward Marston and associates have something equally special in store for Liszt's 200th birthday year in 2011.
-- Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com Read less

1. Etudes (12) for Piano, Op. 10: no 1 in C major by Frédéric Chopin

Performer: Moritz Rosenthal (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1830; Poland
Date of Recording: 4/4/1929
Venue: New York City

2. Etudes (12) for Piano, Op. 10: no 2 in A minor by Frédéric Chopin

Performer: Alfred Cortot (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Date of Recording: 7/4/1933
Venue: London

3. Etudes (12) for Piano, Op. 10: no 3 in E major, B 74 "Tristesse" by Frédéric Chopin

Performer: Rosita Renard (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1836-1839; Paris, France
Date of Recording: 1/19/1949
Venue: New York City

4. Etudes (12) for Piano, Op. 10: no 4 in C sharp minor, B 74 by Frédéric Chopin

Performer: Sydney Foster (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1832; Poland
Date of Recording: 4/27/1952
Venue: Live Indiana University

5. Etudes (12) for Piano, Op. 10: no 5 in G flat major "Black Keys" by Frédéric Chopin

Performer: Sydney Foster (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1830; Poland
Date of Recording: 10/2/1961
Venue: Live Indiana University

6. Etudes (12) for Piano, Op. 10: no 6 in E flat minor by Frédéric Chopin

Performer: Wilhelm Backhaus (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1830; Poland
Date of Recording: 1/5/1928

7. Etudes (12) for Piano, Op. 10: no 7 in C major, B 68 by Frédéric Chopin

Performer: Francis Planté (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1832; Poland
Date of Recording: 7/1928
Venue: Mont-de-Marsan, France

8. Etudes (12) for Piano, Op. 10: no 8 in F major by Frédéric Chopin

Performer: Nikolai Orloff (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1829; Poland
Date of Recording: 12/20/1945
Venue: London

9. Etudes (12) for Piano, Op. 10: no 9 in F minor by Frédéric Chopin

Performer: Solomon (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1829; Poland
Date of Recording: 9/16/1942
Venue: London

10. Etudes (12) for Piano, Op. 10: no 10 in A flat major by Frédéric Chopin

Performer: Garrick Ohlsson (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1829; Poland
Date of Recording: 10/1996
Venue: Purchase, New York

11. Etudes (12) for Piano, Op. 10: no 11 in E flat major by Frédéric Chopin

Performer: Irene Scharrer (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1829; Poland
Date of Recording: 7/21/1933
Venue: London

12. Etudes (12) for Piano, Op. 10: no 12 in C minor, B 67 "Revolutionary" by Frédéric Chopin

Performer: Artur Rubinstein (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1830; Poland
Date of Recording: 1/13/1974
Venue: Live New York City

13. Etudes (12) for Piano, Op. 25: no 1 in A flat major by Frédéric Chopin

Performer: Claudio Arrau (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1836; Paris, France
Date of Recording: 1/23/1929
Venue: Berlin

14. Etudes (12) for Piano, Op. 25: no 2 in F minor by Frédéric Chopin

Performer: Grigori Ginzburg (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1836; Paris, France
Date of Recording: circa 1952
Venue: Moscow

15. Etudes (12) for Piano, Op. 25: no 3 in F major by Frédéric Chopin

Performer: Artur Rubinstein (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1832-1836; Paris, France
Date of Recording: 1/13/1974
Venue: Live New York City

16. Etudes (12) for Piano, Op. 25: no 4 in A minor by Frédéric Chopin

Performer: Rosita Renard (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1832-1836; Paris, France
Date of Recording: 1/19/1949
Venue: New York City

17. Etudes (12) for Piano, Op. 25: no 5 in E minor by Frédéric Chopin

Performer: Géza Anda (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1832-1834; Paris, France
Date of Recording: 5/1943
Venue: Berlin

18. Etudes (12) for Piano, Op. 25: no 6 in G sharp minor by Frédéric Chopin

Performer: Josef Lhévinne (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1832-1836; Paris, France
Date of Recording: 2/23/1933
Venue: Live New York City

19. Etudes (12) for Piano, Op. 25: no 7 in C sharp minor by Frédéric Chopin

Performer: Yevgeny Svetlanov (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1832-1836; Paris, France
Date of Recording: 1980
Venue: Moscow

20. Etudes (12) for Piano, Op. 25: no 8 in D flat major by Frédéric Chopin

Performer: Rosita Renard (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1832-1836; Paris, France
Date of Recording: 1/19/1949
Venue: New York City

21. Etudes (12) for Piano, Op. 25: no 9 in G flat major by Frédéric Chopin

Performer: Ignaz Friedman (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1832-1834; Paris, France
Date of Recording: 2/10/1928
Venue: London

22. Etudes (12) for Piano, Op. 25: no 10 in B minor by Frédéric Chopin

Performer: David Saperton (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1832-1836; Paris, France
Date of Recording: 1952
Venue: New York City

23. Etudes (12) for Piano, Op. 25: no 11 in A minor by Frédéric Chopin

Performer: Alfred Cortot (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1834; Paris, France
Date of Recording: 11/4/1942
Venue: Paris

24. Etudes (12) for Piano, Op. 25: no 12 in C minor by Frédéric Chopin

Performer: Emil Von Sauer (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1836; Paris, France
Date of Recording: circa 1940
Venue: Berlin

25. Nouvelles Etudes (3) for Piano, B 130: no 1 in f minor by Frédéric Chopin

Performer: Robert Goldsand (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1839; Paris, France
Date of Recording: 7/23/1975
Venue: Syracuse, New York

26. Nouvelles Etudes (3) for Piano, B 130: no 2 in A flat major by Frédéric Chopin

Performer: Ann Schein (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1839; Paris, France
Date of Recording: 1958
Venue: New York City

27. Nouvelles Etudes (3) for Piano, B 130: no 3 in D flat major by Frédéric Chopin

Performer: David Saperton (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1839; Paris, France
Date of Recording: 1952
Venue: New York City

28. Impromptu for Piano no 1 in A flat major, B 110/Op. 29 by Frédéric Chopin

Performer: Simon Barere (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1837; Paris, France

29. Impromptu for Piano no 4 in C sharp minor, B 87/Op. 66 "Fantaisie-Impromptu" by Frédéric Chopin

Performer: Magda Tagliaferro (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1835; Paris, France
Date of Recording: 1934
Venue: Paris

30. Berceuse for Piano in D flat major, B 154/Op. 57 by Frédéric Chopin

Performer: Walter Gieseking (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1844; Paris, France
Date of Recording: 8/10/1938
Venue: Berlin

31. Ballade for Piano no 1 in G minor, B 66/Op. 23 by Frédéric Chopin

Performer: Earl Wild (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1831-1835
Date of Recording: 11/1/1981
Venue: Live New York City

32. Ballade for Piano no 4 in F minor, B 146/Op. 52 by Frédéric Chopin

Performer: Jorge Bolet (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1842; Paris, France
Date of Recording: 1/5/1972
Venue: New York City

33. Tarantella for Piano in A flat major, B 139/Op. 43 by Frédéric Chopin

Performer: Shura Cherkassky (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1841; Paris, France
Date of Recording: 4/10/1991
Venue: Live St. Paul, Minnesota

34. Scherzo for Piano no 1 in B minor, B 65/Op. 20 by Frédéric Chopin

Performer: Natan Brand (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1831-1832; Poland
Date of Recording: 1983
Venue: Live Amherst, Massachusetts

35. Scherzo for Piano no 2 in B flat minor/D flat major, B 111/Op. 31 by Frédéric Chopin

Performer: Irene Scharrer (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1837; Paris, France
Date of Recording: 12/5/1932
Venue: London

36. Scherzo for Piano no 3 in C sharp minor, B 125/Op. 39 by Frédéric Chopin

Performer: Karl Ulrich Schnabel (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1839; Mallorca (Majorca),
Date of Recording: circa 1955
Venue: New York City

37. Preludes (24) for Piano, Op. 28: no 1 in C major by Frédéric Chopin

Performer: Mischa Levitzki (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1836-1839; Paris, France
Date of Recording: 11/21/1929
Venue: London

38. Preludes (24) for Piano, Op. 28: no 7 in A major by Frédéric Chopin

Performer: Mischa Levitzki (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1836-1839; Paris, France
Date of Recording: 11/21/1929
Venue: London

39. Preludes (24) for Piano, Op. 28: no 23 in F major by Frédéric Chopin

Performer: Mischa Levitzki (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1836-1839; Paris, France
Date of Recording: 11/21/1929
Venue: London

40. Preludes (24) for Piano, Op. 28: no 9 in E major by Frédéric Chopin