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Maria Perrotta Plays Chopin · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

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  This is Jed Distler and welcome to the Piano Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano
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  recordings.
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  I gave a rather mixed review in Gramophone magazine some years ago to the Italian pianist
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  Maria Perotta's recording for Italian Deca of Beethoven's last three sonatas.
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  I did not review either of her two commercially released live renditions of Bach's Goldberg
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  variations, but I'd like these much, much better than the Beethoven.
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  And the Deca recording of the Goldbergs got special attention, I remember, because I think
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  the pianist was nine months pregnant at the time of that live performance released on
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  Deca.
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  But I want to talk now about another disc of hers for Italian Deca, recorded live in
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  2014.
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  It was an all Chopin recital and my Gramophone colleague Bryce Morrison found it largely
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  disappointing.
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  But I recently listened to it again after many, many years and I have to say that I
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  respectfully disagree with a lot that Bryce said, at least for the most part.
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  I can understand where he was coming from.
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  For example, the three Opus 9 nocturnes that open the recital have plenty of drama and
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  inner tension, but I don't think they lack elegance.
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  Bryce Morrison thought that they were not very elegant, but I really thought so, especially
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  considering Maria Parata's beautifully sung out and limbed cantabile lines.
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  And unlike Bryce Morrison, I did not hear Maria Parata's rendition of the Andante Spianato
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  in Gran Polonaise as being strenuous.
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  There is, I grant you, a sense of vehemence and even aggression at times, but nothing
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  really strains her technique at all.
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  I mean, her technique is really quite effortless.
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  The Bursseuse, though, is not consistently shimmering and I do have to concede that as
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  the music grows more florid, Parata tends to get louder and thicker.
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  Not bothersomely so, mind you, but this is not your Marie Paraya or Solomon interpretation
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  of the Bursseuse.
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  But I can't agree with Bryce Morrison when he says that Parata's measured tempo for the
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  Chopin B minor sonata's first movement is ponderous.
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  I didn't think so at all.
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  I think it's a serious and detailed reading that is almost Beethovenian and very convincingly
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  so to my ears.
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  It reminded me a little bit of what Claudio Arrao did in this movement, although not with
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  the kind of bel canto specificity of phrasing and accent that Arrao brought to this music.
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  Maria Parata's playing of the scherzo is not as light fingered as I ideally want, but the
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  clarity and shape of her phrasing really can't be denied.
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  And she brings a lot of drama and dynamic contrast to the Largo movement.
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  I really liked it a lot.
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  But I think her whole interpretation slowly, slowly and rather assiduously builds to one
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  of the most exultant and joyous and powerful performances of the finale that I know.
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  Oh, you know, I forgot to mention the Chopin Tarantella that she also plays in this recital.
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  At first it seemed a little slow to me, but the rhythmic lawn eventually catches up with
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  you and then you realize that this pianist's tempo really allows the swirling inner voices
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  and the inner lines to really take shape.
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  So if you can find this disc with Maria Parata playing Chopin, definitely give it a shot
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  and it's excellently recorded as well.
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  It's on Italian DECA and the catalog number is 481-1851.
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  So try to find it.
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  I think it's really worth hearing.
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  This is Jed Disler and you've been listening to the Piano Maven, your friendly podcast
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  guide to piano recordings.
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  And I look forward to being together with you for the next episode.