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Ingrid Fliter's Chopin Mazurkas Volume 1 · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

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  This is Jed Distler, and I welcome you to The
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  Piano Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano
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  recordings. I invite you to subscribe to The
• 0:18
  Piano Maven through my Substack page, and I've
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  provided a link to do so in our episode description.
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  Paid subscribers get free... downloads at the
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  start of each month in the form of a rare piano
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  item from my vast collection of recordings. Your
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  paid subscription helps to keep this podcast
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  alive and afloat. When I was in Warsaw this past
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  fall for the Chopin competition, I also kept
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  broadcasts of Between the Keys happening, and
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  I devoted seven episodes to all standard 51 mazurkas,
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  where I had two pianists in each mazurka without
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  repeating a pianist. And all of our Piano Maven
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  episodes pretty much were devoted to Chopin's
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  music. But during this time that I was recording
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  the Mazurka episodes for both Between the Keys
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  and the Piano Maven, there was another complete
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  Mazurka cycle that had just come on the market.
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  Actually, it was the first of two volumes, and
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  I did not get a hold of it in time to talk about
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  it on these broadcasts. So I thought I would
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  talk about it now. It's the first of what I...
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  will imagine to be two discs devoted to the complete
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  Chopin mazurkas, and it features pianist Ingrid
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  Flitter. She recorded these mazurkas in 2024
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  in the Faziole Concert Hall on a Faziole grand
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  piano, of course. I was first struck by the sonics
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  of the recording because The engineering gives
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  a true sense of how this instrument sounds in
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  a modest -sized concert venue from the perspective
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  of a choice audience seat. As such, the engineering
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  really does full justice to Ingrid Flitter's
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  gifts as a colorist, along with her warm and
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  rounded sonority. On this first volume, we have
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  some of the early mazurkas, some without opus
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  number, and some that were posthumously published
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  in the opus 67 and opus 68 groups. Also, This
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  includes the F minor mazurka that was Chopin's
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  last composition. On this volume, we have the
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  complete mazurka sets of opus 6, opus 7, opus
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  24, opus 50, opus 59, and opus 63, which means
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  that we should be expecting the remaining early
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  un -opus -numbered mazurkas. plus the opus 17,
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  30, 33, 41, and 56 groups. Anyway, as a Chopin
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  stylist... and particularly as a mazurka stylist,
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  it's rather hard to pin Ingrid Flitter down.
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  She takes lots of rhythmic liberties, sometimes
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  to the point where I sometimes wish there was
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  a firmer overall sense of a basic pulse and continuity.
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  I'll give you one example in that opus 7 number
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  1 mazurka in B -flat, the way she stretches out
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  those trills. almost seems to stop the music
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  in its tracks. But at the same time, her little
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  rhetorical pauses and her leaning on accents
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  in that small mazurka in E -flat minor, Op. 6
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  No. 4, convincingly brings out the music's cross
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  -rhythmic phrasing. And it also addresses Chopin's
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  tempo indication of... presto manon troppo. A
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  lot of pianists just zip through this piece presto
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  and forget the manon troppo. Not too much. Ingrid
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  Flitter's tempos are kind of all over the place
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  in that opening F sharp minor mazurka opus six
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  number one and Her retards at phrase ends in
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  the complex B -flat minor mazurka opus 24 number
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  4 get a little predictable over the course of
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  the performance. Her kind of lily -gilding rubato
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  seems not so much internalized as obligatory.
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  But there are other mazurkas where Ingrid Flitter
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  conveys character that's informed by intention.
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  And a good example of this is the C major mazurka,
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  Op. 24, No. 2. This is one of my favorite mazurkas.
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  And she shapes the main theme's repetitions with
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  subtle variety. And then that... Following F
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  major section, where you get that Lydian mode,
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  B natural at the phrase ends, she brings a nice...
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  quizzical quality to this section that's fortified
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  by thrusting left -hand accents. And then the
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  following section's rhythmic stops and starts
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  don't sound mannered because there's an improvisatory
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  impulse that grabs your attention and causes
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  you to think, hey, what's happening? Where are
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  we going? Ingrid Flitter's imaginative voicings
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  in this section don't hurt either. I don't mean
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  to get so obsessed over this particular interpretation
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  of Op. 24 No. 2, but I really found it quite
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  absorbing. Now, some parts of that epic C -sharp
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  minor Op. 50 No. 3 mazurka tend to wander a bit.
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  It's very easy to rhapsodize in this piece, but
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  I do feel that other equally subjective interpretations
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  hold together better, such as those of Ivan Moravec
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  and Garrick Olson. At first, I thought the C
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  -sharp minor mazurka, opus 63, number 3, the
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  very familiar da -da -da -dum -ba -da -do -dee,
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  I thought that Ingrid Flitter's little luft pauses
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  and holdbacks in the opening phrase seemed too
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  affected and contrived. But then her subsequent
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  iterations of this phrase were so different from
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  one another and she really kept you guessing
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  and kept me engaged and all these interesting
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  inner voices popping up here and there. I wound
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  up really, really responding well to this performance
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  and it really grew on me. Also, I like how this
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  pianist almost throws away the opening pages
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  of the G major opus 50 number one. If you play
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  this music too forcefully or with grandiosity,
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  that rather tawdry main theme, which I cannot
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  stand. I don't know. I just have this bug in
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  my ear. I just have this kind of a... block about
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  this theme. But Ingrid Flitter just kind of throws
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  the piece away casually and makes it work. And
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  she kind of makes that awful theme sound palatable.
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  But this is just my opinion. I'm sure some of
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  you like this mazurka theme much more than I
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  do. The point is... that Chopin's mazurkas allow
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  for a wide berth of interpretive options. And
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  although some performances succeed more than
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  others to my mind, it's clear that Ingrid Flitter
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  is genuinely engaged with the material and that
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  she has put a lot of time and thought into what
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  she does. So, If you are an insatiable Chopin
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  Mazurka nerd or collector or maven like me, you
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  will want to hear this release, and I definitely
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  look forward to Volume 2. This is Jed Disler,
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  and you've been listening to The Piano Maven,
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  your friendly podcast guide to piano recordings.
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  I look forward to being with you for our next
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  episode. Take good care.