Latest / The Piano Maven with Jed Distler / Chopin's Preludes Op. 28 on Disc
Transcript
- 0:07This is Jed Distler, and welcome to The Piano
- 0:11Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano recordings.
- 0:16I would like to thank all of you who have subscribed
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- 0:22one year ago in July of 2024. And I've been enjoying
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- 1:03so for This first anniversary episode of The
- 1:09Piano Maven, I thought that I could take a large
- 1:12scale and very familiar work, like the 24 Preludes,
- 1:17Op. 28 by Frederic Chopin, and that I would come
- 1:22up with 24 pianists. who have recorded the cycle
- 1:26of 24 Preludes. Several of these pianists have
- 1:30recorded the cycle on more than one occasion,
- 1:33as you will find out. And because this is such
- 1:37an important and iconic piece, I'm going to talk
- 1:41about the work a little bit first and give you
- 1:44some background information. Let's go back to
- 1:471838 when a writer whose name was Aurora Amantine
- 1:55Dupin -Dudevant, better known by her male pen
- 2:01name of Georges Sand, traveled to the island
- 2:07of Mallorca with her two children and her boyfriend,
- 2:11who was the composer Frédéric Chopin. And this
- 2:15was intended to be a romantic getaway of sorts.
- 2:21The trip turned out to be an utter disaster because
- 2:24they wound up having really shabby lodgings and
- 2:27the weather was so awful and rainy and cold that
- 2:32it wound up aggregating Chopin's already serious
- 2:36tubercular condition. In fact, several doctors
- 2:41on the island came to examine Chopin and all
- 2:44basically said, sorry, Frederick, you're going
- 2:47to die. Also, Chopin had expected to have access
- 2:52to a decent piano, but that didn't happen. So
- 2:57during their stay in Majorca, Chopin still managed
- 3:01to complete his Preludes, Op. 28. And I suspect
- 3:07that the work's volatile changes in mood and
- 3:11character from one piece to another may well
- 3:15have a kind of autobiographical subtext in terms
- 3:19of this ill -fated vacation. But I think more
- 3:23importantly, the preludes represent a microcosm
- 3:28of Chopin's style and his aesthetic on several
- 3:32levels. Very structure, for instance, reflects
- 3:37Chopin's deep love and regard for Johann Sebastian
- 3:41Bach, particularly the well -tempered clavier.
- 3:45And the Bach preludes and fugues of the well
- 3:49-tempered clavier encompass all 24 major and
- 3:54minor keys, as do Chopin's 24 preludes. Now,
- 3:59Bach organizes the preludes and fugues by chromatically
- 4:03ascending half steps, meaning that first you
- 4:06have a prelude and fugue in C major, and then
- 4:09a prelude and fugue in C minor, and then one
- 4:12in C sharp major, and then C sharp minor, D major,
- 4:19D minor, et cetera, et cetera. chromatically.
- 4:23But Chopin establishes a different scheme based
- 4:28on the circle of fifths. And if you are not a
- 4:31musician, I'll try to explain this as clearly
- 4:34as I can. The first of the Chopin preludes is
- 4:38in C major. And then the second is in A minor,
- 4:42which goes down a third of an interval from C
- 4:47major to its relative minor key of A minor. And
- 4:52then for number three, Chopin ascends a perfect
- 4:56fifth up from C major to G major. And then again,
- 5:01number four is in the relative minor of G major,
- 5:06which is the key of E minor. And this pattern
- 5:10continues for the remaining preludes. Like number
- 5:13five is D major, and that is up a perfect fifth
- 5:18from the... G major and then you have B minor
- 5:24the relative minor of D major and so on and so
- 5:28forth and this pattern of keys now this isn't
- 5:34exactly an original idea of Chopin because Johann
- 5:39Nepomuk Hummel did the same thing he used the
- 5:44same kind of harmonic pattern in his set of 24
- 5:49preludes, opus 67, that was composed in 1815.
- 5:54And it uses this exact circle of fifths template.
- 5:58And I know that Chopin was familiar with this
- 6:01piece. There doesn't seem to be any evidence
- 6:04that Chopin performed all 24 preludes as a cycle.
- 6:10And it only was a... guess in the later part
- 6:15of the 19th century, where pianists did begin
- 6:18to play all 24 preludes as a continuous cycle.
- 6:23I think the piece definitely works as such, and
- 6:27it usually is heard that way now. So let's talk
- 6:33about recordings of all 24 preludes as a cycle.
- 6:36And as I said earlier, I've selected 24 pianists
- 6:41who've recorded the 24 preludes as a cycle. I
- 6:45should say that even beyond the 24 pianists who
- 6:49I've picked, there are still fantastic recorded
- 6:52versions out there. I mean, when it comes to
- 6:55the preludes, Op. 28, we are really spoiled for
- 6:59choice. We've been spoiled for choice for almost
- 7:03100 years, starting in 1926. 99 years ago, when
- 7:10Alfred Courtauld made the first commercial recording
- 7:13of the Preludes, Op. 28, he probably holds the
- 7:18record for the most studio recordings of the
- 7:22Preludes made by one pianist. His first integral
- 7:27commercial recording was from 1926, and he would
- 7:31go on to record the cycle three more times in
- 7:34the studio. His 1934 recording is probably my
- 7:39favorite of the four. First of all, it's better
- 7:42sonically and he's on better technical form than
- 7:46in 1926. The 1942 version he recorded in France
- 7:51is less well engineered and it's less well played.
- 7:55And we're not going to talk about the unpublished
- 7:591957 studio recording that EMI did. finally publish
- 8:06in their 40 -disc Alfred Courtauld anniversary
- 8:09box set. But it's the 1934 recording where Courtauld
- 8:15conveys drama and ecstasy and poetry. every bar
- 8:20of music and he has that ability to create a
- 8:24totally different character for each piece just
- 8:28through like subtle changes of sound and he has
- 8:32this ability he always did to hit upon just the
- 8:37right tempo now a less intense yet maybe more
- 8:43aristocratic point of view with even more technical
- 8:47refinement comes from Benno Moiseevich, whose
- 8:511949 HMV recording of the Chopin Preludes has
- 8:57always been on the top of my list. And he offers
- 9:01some interesting textual variants. For instance,
- 9:05in the seventh prelude, he plays an altered version
- 9:08of one measure where the melody is distinctly
- 9:12different from what we normally hear. He uses
- 9:15the Carl Klindworth edition. So instead of he
- 9:20goes I mean, I can't remember exactly what it
- 9:29is because I'm recording this really early in
- 9:31the morning and I'm too lazy to take my score
- 9:34out. Another recording from the 78 era. doesn't
- 9:40get talked about often when recordings of the
- 9:43preludes are discussed. And this is the 1946
- 9:47recording by Arthur Rubinstein. He didn't think
- 9:52very highly of this. And it's never been a recording
- 9:56that has had the critical consensus that distinguishes
- 10:00Rubinstein's other Chopin recordings. Like his
- 10:03waltzes have always had a... critical consensus
- 10:07about them and the Mazurkas, for example. But
- 10:10returning to the preludes, I hadn't heard them
- 10:13in a while, and I really like the vehement and
- 10:17angular and anti -sentimental vantage point that
- 10:21he brings to this music. It kind of reminds me
- 10:24of how Arthur Schnabel treated Beethoven. There's
- 10:28none of the surface charm that you normally get
- 10:31from Rubinstein. So in this sense, it's rather
- 10:34atypical of his Chopin. Actually, his 1949 nocturnes
- 10:40are... cut from similar cloth, I would say, but
- 10:44Rubinstein's Chopin Preludes, I think, really
- 10:48deserve revisiting for sure. Now, I wish that
- 10:52the 1949 Guillemard Novais Chopin Preludes on
- 10:57the Vox label could be remastered and reissued,
- 11:02because these are wonderful and very individual
- 11:06accounts with all kinds of alluring voicings
- 11:10and nuances. It's very creative and subjective
- 11:14playing, but it's always in the spirit of Chopin.
- 11:18You have to hear these recordings if you can
- 11:20find them. Just don't take my word for it. There
- 11:23is a live Chopin Preludes that Music and Arts
- 11:26published with Guillemard Novais, but the sound
- 11:29quality is not very good, unfortunately. But
- 11:32try to find these studio recordings of Novais
- 11:35and the Preludes. And there's another underrated
- 11:40and overlooked, yet technically really excellent
- 11:44and musically fresh interpretation that came
- 11:48out in the early 50s on the Decca label with
- 11:52Friedrich Gulda. This is really, really worth
- 11:55hearing. I'm going to skip over some other Chopin
- 12:00Preludes recordings from the 1950s so that I
- 12:03can get to the 1960s. Geza Anda on Deutsche Grammophon
- 12:09features impressive pianistic refinement and
- 12:13pinpointed detail in his finger work. He tended
- 12:17to be a pianist who was more into little details
- 12:22rather than being a pianist interested in the
- 12:25big picture. And I think that works out really
- 12:28well for the Preludes. Ivan Moravec on Connoisseur
- 12:33Society. This is a really marvelous recording.
- 12:37And he tends to treat each piece as a cameo miniature,
- 12:41almost like a... Fabergé egg, for lack of a better
- 12:45analogy. And I guess the word refinement is really
- 12:50appropriate here. I ever, ever so slightly prefer
- 12:54these 1960s recordings to his still excellent
- 12:58and stylistically similar 1970s remake on Superfun,
- 13:03which is the one that you can readily obtain.
- 13:07Now, the 1960s versions were available on the
- 13:11VAI label on CD, and that disc is rather hard
- 13:16to find, unfortunately. But if you do find it
- 13:19and you don't have to spend a fortune, definitely
- 13:23grab it. Now we are going to get to the classic
- 13:27reference versions of the Chopin Preludes Op.
- 13:3128 from the 1970s. It's kind of simplistic to
- 13:36say that Maurizio Pollini is Apollonian and Martha
- 13:41Argerich is Dionysiac. But that pretty much sums
- 13:46up their brilliant and musicianly and totally
- 13:50antipodal approaches. Perhaps Murray Pariah's
- 13:55version from that same era splits the difference.
- 13:59Now, again, I'm simplifying here. In the company
- 14:03of Argerich, Polini, and Pariah, there was another
- 14:07marvelous version that tended to fall in between
- 14:10the cracks. And that was Vladimir Ashkenazi's
- 14:14recording. And this is a red -blooded and passionate
- 14:18account. But at the same time, it's quite scrupulous
- 14:21in regard to the text. Now, also from the 1970s,
- 14:27we had Claudio Arau, which is very highly rhetorical
- 14:31and inflected, but what a golden tone he had,
- 14:36an extraordinary finish to the pianism. And this
- 14:40is a more colorful and subjective and emotionally
- 14:44convincing interpretation than the one that Arau
- 14:47recorded in the late 1940s for Columbia, which
- 14:51I did not mention earlier. There's another 1970s
- 14:54version that was not approved for release at
- 14:59the time of its recording. This is with Rudolf
- 15:02Serkin. I think he recorded this in 1975, and
- 15:06it did come out after his death. And the booklet
- 15:09notes of the original release said that Serkin
- 15:13had, quote -unquote, good reason not to sanction
- 15:17its release. Actually, I think it was recorded
- 15:20in 1976. I have to look. Anyway, it was around
- 15:25that time. But I don't know why Cirkin did not
- 15:29approve its release. Maybe there were one or
- 15:31two smudges. But who really cares? Because this
- 15:35is such interesting. wonderful playing. I mean,
- 15:39Sirkin's forceful and unvarnished and angular
- 15:44interpretation is very much in the mode of the
- 15:48Arthur Rubinstein recording. Like many pianists
- 15:53of his generation, Serkin is not averse to breaking
- 15:57his hands, you know, playing the left hand before
- 16:00the right hand for melodic emphasis and textural
- 16:04variety. And you hear him do that in the simpler
- 16:07lyrical preludes. But at the same time, Serkin
- 16:11does not give you many of the so -called traditional
- 16:21in the 17th prelude, the A -flat prelude. Those
- 16:26introductory measures before the tune comes in.
- 16:35Of course, I'm singing it too fast. Now, most
- 16:41pianists make a retard at the end of those chords.
- 16:45Then the melody. So they do... But Serkin does
- 16:57not make a retard on those chords. And neither
- 17:02does Frigigolda, for that matter. So you hear...
- 17:11gives that melody a different kind of emphasis.
- 17:15Now I don't mean to harp so much on those details,
- 17:18but this is something that is kind of interesting.
- 17:21Now, by playing number 18 in tempo with almost
- 17:25little rubato and no melodrama, those unison
- 17:30octave outbursts have much more of a stinging
- 17:34impact than usual with Rudolf Serkin. And he
- 17:38brings really strong power and clarity in the...
- 17:438th and 16th and 19th and 24th preludes. And
- 17:48even at that point in his career, when Sirkin
- 17:51was 70 or in his early 70s, he could still rise
- 17:56to and vanquish virtuosity. challenges like no
- 18:00one else. Now, before moving on to some more
- 18:03recent versions of the preludes that I've enjoyed,
- 18:06I should mention that Ashkenazi and Polnini remade
- 18:11the preludes later on. Ashkenazi re -recorded
- 18:15the preludes in the early 1990s, and these are
- 18:19larger scaled interpretations than the ones he
- 18:22did in the 70s. They're grander and more daring
- 18:25in some ways, with more contrasts. in articulation.
- 18:29But on the other hand, Polini's 2011 remake is
- 18:35more austere and less inflected and even impatient
- 18:40sometimes in the lyrical pieces. I really prefer
- 18:44his 1970s version over the remake. Oh, I also
- 18:48forgot to mention that Garrick Olson recorded
- 18:52the preludes twice. He recorded them in the 1970s,
- 18:56around the same time as Argerich and Polini and
- 19:00Arau and Ashkenazi. These are good recordings,
- 19:04but I think his remakes for... arabesque are
- 19:09much much better and they have much more flexibility
- 19:13in dynamic contrasts and color and poetry they're
- 19:19really really fine readings of the preludes and
- 19:22this came out on arabesque and it was reissued
- 19:25on hyperion in the complete chopin works cycle
- 19:30by garrick olson definitely check that out one
- 19:34chopin prelude cycle from the 80s that never,
- 19:39never got the attention that it deserved is one
- 19:42with the young Jean -Yves Thibaudet. I think
- 19:46he recorded it in 1987 for Denon in Japan. And
- 19:52these are colorful, impetuous, and thoughtfully
- 19:56detailed and technically marvelous readings.
- 19:59And it's also very well recorded. I hadn't thought
- 20:03about the April 2001 recording on the Erato label
- 20:10by Nikolai Lugansky in quite a long time. But
- 20:14I took it out again and listened again, and I
- 20:17really, really like it a lot, much more than
- 20:20I did many years ago. This interpretation really
- 20:25personifies the Russian Romantic tradition at
- 20:29its best, meaning broad tempos for the A major
- 20:34and E major and F major preludes, and then you
- 20:38get terrific speed and precision. and virtuoso
- 20:42pieces like the G major, F sharp minor, and B
- 20:45flat minor preludes. There's a lot of rhetorical
- 20:48inflection, but it's never extreme. Sometimes
- 20:52his fast finger work can be on the glib side,
- 20:56but this is masterful pianism without any doubt.
- 21:00And in a similar vein, the live Daniil Trifonov.
- 21:06recording on Deutsche Grammophon from his Carnegie
- 21:09Hall debut recital, is stylistically similar,
- 21:14although maybe there's more audacity in his interpretation,
- 21:17and it is better recorded. Now, for totally arresting
- 21:23subjectivity and real audacity and boundless
- 21:28creative imagination, here is a Chopin prelude
- 21:32cycle that... I think, really walks on the wild
- 21:36side. And that's the Sony classical recording
- 21:39with Cyprian Katsaras. Now, he almost makes Cortot
- 21:44sound like Pellini. I mean, this is such crazy
- 21:48playing, but you cannot help but get drawn into
- 21:51the sound world. I mean, Katsaras has charisma
- 21:55up the wazoo. His recording of the preludes is
- 21:59one of my guilty pleasures. I suppose that The
- 22:03Cyprian Katsaris Chopin Preludes relates in the
- 22:07same way that his mentor, Georges Chiffre, related
- 22:12to the Chopin Etudes. Now, I wouldn't make Katsaris
- 22:15your first choice, but once you get to know this
- 22:19music from a relatively straightforward version,
- 22:22you will really appreciate Katsaris, at least
- 22:26I hope you will. I just have so much fun listening
- 22:30to this recording. But for a subjective approach
- 22:34minus the borderline eccentricity, I want to
- 22:39draw your attention to the two live recordings
- 22:42published with Grigori Sokolov. The first one
- 22:47was from 1990, and I think it was first released
- 22:51on a label called Opus 111. I know it appeared
- 22:54on the Naive label later on. I honestly can't...
- 22:59keep track of this recording's various incarnations.
- 23:02But it's very, very compelling and the pianism
- 23:06has extraordinary finish to it. And then there
- 23:09is the Sokolov 2008 performance from the Salzburg
- 23:14Festival released on Deutsche Grammophon. And
- 23:18I prefer the 2008 performance in several respects.
- 23:24I think the closer microphone placement gives
- 23:27more edge to the accents, so that pieces like
- 23:32the G major, F sharp minor, and E flat preludes
- 23:36seem more specific, I guess, in regard to the
- 23:41linear contours. But there are pianistic differences
- 23:45too, like Sokolov uses less pedal, and he gives
- 23:50crisper articulation in 2008 to the B -flat minor
- 23:54prelude, and he's more direct and less stretched
- 23:58out in the B -flat major than he was in 1990.
- 24:02But still, I would recommend hearing both of
- 24:05these recordings. I think I had written in a
- 24:08review that his interpretation was something
- 24:11of a more intellectualized version of Argerich's
- 24:15impulsive interpretation. I don't know if I still
- 24:18agree with what I wrote. But look, here are these
- 24:21two recordings for yourself, and I would be curious
- 24:24to see what you think. Now, I'd like to talk
- 24:28about several recent Chopin Preludes editions
- 24:31that I've really enjoyed. In 2013, Christian
- 24:37Boudou became the first Brazilian pianist to
- 24:42win the international Clara Haskell competition.
- 24:45And one byproduct of his victory was his solo
- 24:49piano CD released on the Claves label that included
- 24:54the Chopin Preludes. And he brings a personal
- 24:58voice and a strong point of view to the Preludes.
- 25:04He conveys really passionate sweep, but also
- 25:07great clarity in the first prelude's shifts of
- 25:11texture. And the second prelude, I just re -listened
- 25:16to it. At first, it seems like it's kind of slow
- 25:19and straightjacketed. I mean, nowhere near as
- 25:27slow as Sergio Fiorentino's recording. But the
- 25:32carefully built up dynamic plan intensifies the
- 25:38very disturbing dissonances. And these dissonances
- 25:42in the second prelude still are very disturbing
- 25:46today. And there's a real dry lightness to the
- 25:50fifth prelude's cross rhythms. And number 10
- 25:54has a lot of audacity to it. Those cascading
- 25:57runs just... bolt out of the starting gate, followed
- 26:01by an abrupt slamming of the brakes. I just re
- 26:05-listened to number 16 and I noticed how Boudou
- 26:09takes those six opening chords. One, two, three,
- 26:15four, five, six. Yeah, those were six chords.
- 26:17He makes this unwritten crescendo underneath
- 26:21them. Chopin didn't write that, but it's quite
- 26:24an effect. I had never heard that from anyone
- 26:26else. Or if I did hear it from someone else,
- 26:29I didn't remember. But it's a very, very interesting
- 26:32and compelling interpretation. Some people may
- 26:36like... Ingrid Flitter's recording of the preludes
- 26:40on the Lynn label more than I do. They're very
- 26:44beautifully played and there's a lot of refinement
- 26:47to her pianism. I kind of find the recording
- 26:51inconsistent because I feel that she underplays
- 26:53some of the earlier ones in the set and she drags
- 26:58out that B minor prelude number six. Well, I'm
- 27:08exaggerating her tempo, but it never seems to
- 27:11end. And that raindrop prelude just gets thicker
- 27:15and heavier as it unfolds. I think I wrote in
- 27:20a review that her raindrops are turning into
- 27:23oobleck. You know, the Dr. Seuss story of Bartholomew
- 27:28and the oobleck, when instead of rain, you're
- 27:31getting this new invention called oobleck, where
- 27:34everything is sticking to the ground and, you
- 27:38know, you're getting stuck in the oobleck and
- 27:40you can't walk. Well, those are the raindrops
- 27:43in Ingrid Flitter's recording. The way that she
- 27:47plays number 18, it's one of the most electrifying
- 27:53renditions of this prelude I've ever heard. I
- 27:57mean, wow. Talk about adrenaline revival. You
- 28:01know, she's made some very compelling recordings,
- 28:04in all fairness, of Chopin. I love her Chopin
- 28:07waltzes, which are really delightfully old -school
- 28:11interpretations. They're just irresistible. I
- 28:15like her Chopin B minor sonata a lot. And there's
- 28:19some live recordings that VAI issued of Chopin
- 28:23that I think are terrific. Her nocturnes, I don't
- 28:27like as much as other people do. I think they're
- 28:29kind of meh. But anyway, she's a serious artist,
- 28:34and do check out her preludes. Maybe you will
- 28:38like them more than I do. Now, on the Zig Zag
- 28:41Territories label, there's a recording with Andrew
- 28:45Tyson, and I talked about him recently on this
- 28:50podcast, calling him the Willy Wonka of pianists,
- 28:54and that is a compliment from... from me because
- 28:57I think he's a brilliant pianist and he has a
- 29:00great mind and he's always taking chances and
- 29:04he's never uninteresting. And I remember in the
- 29:08booklet notes of Andrew Tyson's Chopin Preludes,
- 29:12he talks about the tension between spontaneity
- 29:16and craft that runs through these pieces. Pianists
- 29:21generally are able to reconcile these characteristics,
- 29:25whether you are a free spirit like Courtauld
- 29:28or Moiseevich or Argerich, or if you are classically
- 29:31oriented like Polini and Gulda and Serkin and
- 29:36Ashkenazi. But sometimes Tyson crosses that thin
- 29:42and fragile line between individuality and eccentricity.
- 29:47He's always interesting, so you've got to give
- 29:50him propers for that. However, I think a pianist
- 29:54who really achieves an ideal fusion of impassioned
- 29:58order and classical textual rigor is Wolfram
- 30:04Schmidt Leonardi on the brilliant Classics label.
- 30:07I think it came out on Piano Classics. also but
- 30:11i remember when i reviewed this for classicstoday
- 30:14.com i got so involved in details and i i just
- 30:20wrote a very long review of this i got really
- 30:23carried away with chapter and verse i think i
- 30:27did so because i was just so fascinated by what
- 30:30he was doing and i recommend that you read my
- 30:34original review of this because i'm not going
- 30:37to go into great detail here but i've posted
- 30:40a link to my review, and so you can hear all
- 30:44of these details for yourself. I think this is
- 30:47a really terrific recording that hasn't been
- 30:50talked about very much, but it ranks among my
- 30:54top favorite Chopin Preludes recordings, certainly
- 30:57among the more recent versions out there. And
- 31:01then on Harmonia Mondi, I've always liked the
- 31:05Alexandre Tarot recording. He takes the first
- 31:09prelude's agitato directive and he just simply
- 31:13runs away with it. But he makes the right hand's
- 31:17triplet and quintuplet groupings very distinctly
- 31:20audible. And I like his interpretation of number
- 31:2512. This is very interesting. You know, the G
- 31:27sharp minor. You know, most pianists drive through.
- 31:36the first big climax, which is at measure 21,
- 31:40if you have the score. But what Taroro does is
- 31:44really interesting. He kind of leans into the
- 31:47grace notes in order to underline the music's
- 31:51momentary mazurka -like feeling. And this is
- 31:55a very odd and unconventional, yet very convincing
- 31:59effect. And I don't know why other pianists haven't
- 32:03noticed that. little tiny mazurka inserted in
- 32:07the middle of this prelude. And in the B -flat
- 32:10prelude, number 21, which is often treated as
- 32:14a lyrical, expansive piece, it has an unusually
- 32:18forward moving urgency in Tarot's interpretation
- 32:23that just dovetails easily into number 22, which
- 32:28is totally agitated. I think it's a really, really
- 32:31distinctive interpretation. There's only one
- 32:34tiny weak moment, which is a little bit of a
- 32:39hesitation at one point in the 10th prelude in
- 32:42the descending right -hand runs. But look, it
- 32:45really doesn't matter. This is a terrific Chopin
- 32:48prelude. However, if... I had to make a top recommendation
- 32:53among all of the recent versions that I was just
- 32:57talking about. It would be the recording on the
- 33:00Alpha label by Bezard Abduremov. And his stellar
- 33:06technique and his intelligent musicianship and
- 33:11his feeling for tonal nuance stand out in every
- 33:15piece. Not only does he nail No. 3's difficult
- 33:19left -hand runs, but he shades them very subtly.
- 33:23And he gives amazing cross -rhythmic definition
- 33:27to No. 5, No. 8. There's a real shimmer to the
- 33:33very elaborate textures. It's just so transparent
- 33:37and clear, but the music still moves and it still
- 33:41has passion. And his fleetness and poise in such
- 33:47virtuoso show pieces like No. 16 and 19 and 22
- 33:52and 24, I think are very close to the classicism
- 33:57of the 1974 Polini recording. But there's a little
- 34:02more dynamism and passion to them, I think. But
- 34:05there is so much color and authority to Abduremov's
- 34:10playing that you really can't ignore it. This
- 34:13is one of the finest versions of the Chopin Preludes,
- 34:17really from any generation. So there we have
- 34:21it, 24 pianists. Alfred Courtauld, Benno Moisejevic,
- 34:28Arthur Rubinstein, Guillemar Novais, Frigia Gulda,
- 34:31Geza Anda, Ivan Moravec, who recorded it twice,
- 34:35Maurizio Pellini, who recorded it twice, Martha
- 34:38Argerich, Vladimir Ashkenazi, who recorded it
- 34:42twice, Claudio Arau has two studio recordings,
- 34:46Rudolf Serkin, Garrick Olson, who recorded it
- 34:50twice in the studio. Jean -Yves Thibaudet, Nikolai
- 34:54Lugansky, Daniel Trifonov, Cyprian Katsaris,
- 34:58Grigory Sokolov, who recorded it twice officially,
- 35:02Christian Boudou, Ingrid Flitter, Andrew Tyson,
- 35:07Wolfram Schmidt -Leonardi, Alexandra Tharot,
- 35:11and Bezad Abdureimov. 24 pianists in recordings
- 35:16of the 24 Preludes, Op. 28 by Frédéric Chopin.
- 35:21So which one would I recommend out of all of
- 35:25these? I honestly can't say. I think all of these
- 35:29are really worth hearing. And I will leave it
- 35:32to you to explore this vast treasure trove of
- 35:38recordings. This is Jed Disler, and you've been
- 35:41listening to The Piano Maven, your friendly podcast
- 35:44guide to piano recordings. Thank you so much
- 35:48for tuning into this. podcast episode and I look
- 35:53forward to being with you next time. Take good
- 35:56care.