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Chopin's Berceuse on Disc · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

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This is Jed Disler and welcome to The Piano Maven,
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your friendly podcast guide to piano recordings.
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You can subscribe to The Piano Maven by... Going
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And from time to time, we have these Zoom meetings
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where we talk about all things piano. So please
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consider a paid subscription to keep our podcast
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in production. In 2016, my writer colleague and
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friend at Gramophone magazine, Bryce Morrison.
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devoted a gramophone collection survey to selected
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recordings of Chopin's berceuse. Now, usually
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for the gramophone collection, we are expected
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to cover large scale works. And I think this
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was the first time that the gramophone collection
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zeroed in on a miniature. Yet the berceuse is
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a major miniature, and not just because it's
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in a major key, but because it's a really substantial
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and important piece. and kind of unique to Chopin's
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catalog. It has a left -hand ostinato that has
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a gently rocking lullaby -like quality, over
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which an equally gentle melody appears, and that's
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followed by a series of decorative variations
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over that ostinato ground. In fact, Chopin originally
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was going to call the piece Variantes. or variance,
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variance, I don't know if I'm pronouncing it
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correctly, but I guess he was going to call it
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variations or variance, something like that.
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And originally, he began the piece plunging right
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into that melody, the dee -dee -dee -dee -dee
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-dee -dee -dee -dee -dee -dee. But it was only
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later that he added the two opening measures
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devoted to that left -hand ostinato figure alone.
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The variations grow more elaborate as they progress,
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yet they eventually recede into the simplicity
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and the gentleness that we heard at the outset.
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The dynamics are understated throughout the piece,
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yet there are subtle gradations and shadings.
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Although it's a piece that's primarily concerned
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with texture and sonority and atmosphere, the
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very nature of that ostinato ground. It's gentle
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rhythmic lilting, I mean. This implies that you
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want to have a steady pulse that can be flexible,
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but not too flexible, but at the same time you
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don't want to feel straitjacketed or rigid. Generally,
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I prefer interpretations that are simple yet
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not matter -of -fact. interpretations that are
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poetic but without overdoing expressive gestures,
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and where the tempo conveys a steady yet not
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insistent sense of rocking. Tone, color, nuanced
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shadings, and a variety of touch are, of course,
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big, big pluses. But I also am open to unconventional
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interpretive ideas if they are conveyed in a
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convincing manner. I'm going to be discussing
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17 pianists during this talk, beginning with
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Joseph Hoffman. He always played the berceuse
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at a tempo that I've always felt was too fast
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for comfort. Not his comfort, because, you know,
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in his prime, Hoffman could play anything at
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any tempo with no effort. I mean, for the listener's
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comfort. Hoffman leaves listeners very little
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time to savor the bel canto implications of Chopin's
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decorative phrases. Probably the best of his
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surviving Berceau's recordings is the acoustic
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Columbia. that he made in 1918. But by the time
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of his live 1937 and 1938 Golden Jubilee season
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performances, Hoffman's berceuse started to become
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much more flippant, and he poked around with
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inner voices that were more of his own manufacturing
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than Chopin's. And in the 1937 Metropolitan Opera
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House Concert Golden Jubilee performance, At
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around the 2 minute and 38 second mark, he starts
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to accentuate these consecutive A flats in the
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tenor for no reason except that he could. Now
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Hoffman doesn't do that in the April 4th, 1938
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Philadelphia performance, by the way. He only
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does that thing with the A flats in the Metropolitan
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Opera performance. Alfred Courtauld recorded
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the Berceuse on several occasions in the studio.
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I see one from 1920, and then again in 1923,
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and then an electrical recording in 1926, then
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again in 1949, and finally in 1954. Some specialist
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Courtauld mavens prefer the 1920 version over
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the 1923. although the sonics are much better
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in 1923, considering acoustic technology. But
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in both of these recordings, he plays with great
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freedom and fantasy, almost as if he's improvising.
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And the effect is really quite magical. Cortot
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is slightly less extreme in the 1926 electrical
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recording, but equally imaginative. Now when
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we get to 1949, the sound... Now when we get
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to 1949, you really notice the sonic improvement.
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There's one horribly exposed wrong note in this
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recording. But I think that the superior sound
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quality, courtesy of EMI's Abbey Road studio,
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captures Courtauld's tone at its best. He remade
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the Berceuse in 1954, but I think this performance
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is a little more mannered, and there are more
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clinkers here, not of any great consequence.
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But my Alfred Courtauld Berceuse choices ultimately
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lie in the 1923 and 1949 versions. Another Berceuse
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from the 78 era ought to be mentioned. And that's
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the recording by Solomon from the early 1940s.
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He maintains a hypnotically slow tempo with all
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of the right -hand filigree spun out to the smoothest
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perfection. And the adjustments in pulse are
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very, very subtle. And you will notice how Solomon
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takes his sweet time over the long trills, which
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are so... utterly even and so utterly gorgeous.
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Now, by contrast, Nadia Reisenberg makes some
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unorthodox tempo modifications in her live Carnegie
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Hall performance of the Bursus. But she totally
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convinces me and she makes these modifications
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sound natural rather than contrived. And there's
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a really amazing recording that was taken from
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a recording session for the Vox label. where
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the pianist Guillermo Novais is fighting with
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the producer, who wants to have her record some
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new repertoire. But she's been totally stubborn,
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and she refuses to do so. And she blatantly ignores
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the producer's pleas. You hear her say, I am
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an artiste, I am not a machine. And all the time
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that they're arguing, she's practicing. the verses
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at the same time at a super super super slow
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tempo and then in the middle she changes keys
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in the process still at a very slow tempo and
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basically she won't budge and the producer gets
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nowhere with his demands and the session ultimately
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produced nothing usable if it produced anything
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this excerpt is available in a release on the
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Marston label called Landmarks of Recorded Pianism,
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Volume 1. Next, we have two pianists, both born
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in 1895, who were not known as Chopin players,
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really, but both of them made exquisite recordings
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of the Berceuse. One is Walter Gieseking. And
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he recorded it first in 1939, and then again
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in 1956, just days before his untimely death
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after a sudden illness. The 1938 version evokes
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Claude Debussy's conception, I think, of a piano
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without hammers, and it has really magical flexibility
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to it. The 1956 version, to my ears, is less
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magical. It's more matter -of -fact. Maybe it's
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the engineering, but I don't know, somehow the
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soft playing of Gieseking doesn't hold the same
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kind of allure that I find in his earlier recording.
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The other pianist is Wilhelm Kempf, who was born
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in 1895. There is a 1945 broadcast performance
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of Kempf that's not so much ravishing as it is
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otherworldly and ethereal, with microscopic levels
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of shading between piano and pianissimo. I think
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he digs deeper than Gieseking, honestly. variety
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that he brings to how he voices the arpeggiated
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chords. I would call this actually magicissimo,
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not just magic. This 1945 broadcast is also unusually
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well recorded for its vintage. It sounds like
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it could have been recorded 10 years later. In
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fact, It has fuller bodied sound than in Kempf's
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late 1950s stereo recording of the Beersoos for
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Decca, which is beautiful in and of itself, but
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I don't really find it quite as special as the
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1945 version, which is a Beersoos to die for,
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or rather a Beersoos to live for. But you don't
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want to die before hearing this recording. Also
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on Decca, we have Vladimir Ashkenazi, and Bryce
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Morrison singled out this recording for its feeling
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of being a true lullaby. He wrote in the article
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that the piquant grace notes at bars 15 through
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18 return as an enlivening memory in his final
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and dreamlike fade -out. I agree with Bryce.
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especially in those impeccably judged final pages.
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What Ashkenazi does is beautiful. I don't think
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Ashkenazi quite captured the same atmosphere
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when he remade the Beershoes in 1999. Oh, I forgot
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to mention that the first Ashkenazi recording
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that I spoke of is part of his complete Chopin
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cycle that he began to record in the 1970s. For
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those who consider Maurizio Pollini to be cold
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and not... poetic. You will be truly surprised
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by the warmth and the radiant sheen of his runs
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and his trills. And this is the first recording
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he did of the verses I'm talking about, the one
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that was originally issued on a disc with the
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four Chopin scherzos. His remake seemed kind
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of perfunctory by comparison and even has some
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moments where he's rushing the rhythm. Marc -Andre
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Hamelin also has a totally enchanting Berceuse,
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where every note is a perfectly articulated pearl,
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no matter what the dynamic level may be. It's
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just so lovingly shaped. This is one of my very
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favorite versions in the catalog. Oh, I just
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heard my phone go off there. Oh, it's actually
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a substack notice. See, it's saying, please subscribe
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to the Piano Maven. Some listeners may like Yevgeny
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Kissin's impressionistic, almost Debussy -like
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performance of the Bursos more than I do. I prefer
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a disembodied interpretation with a little more
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meat on its bones, so to speak, as in the aforementioned
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Kempf recording. But if you like your Bursos
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with freedom and flexibility and a wide variety
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of characterizations, I think that Garrick Olsen's
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recording, the one that appeared on Hyperion,
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will give you a lot of satisfaction. The late
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Tatyana Shebanova takes her sweet time in a recording
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of the Bursos. that she made on an Erard piano
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dating from around 1849. This is close to Chopin's
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time. Actually, that was the year Chopin died.
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And she really gets into this instrument's natural
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sustaining and short decaying resonance, which
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is almost harp -like. But her recording on a
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conventional modern concert grand is no less
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special. And one of these days I should devote
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a... podcast to both of Tatiana Shabanova's almost
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complete Chopin cycles. She did one on a modern
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grand and one on a period instrument. These cycles
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really have not received the attention they deserve.
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And another intense yet very subtle reading that
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deserves your attention comes from Norma Fisher
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in a BBC broadcast that was reissued on CD. Well,
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not reissued. It was issued for the first time
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on CD. There's a series of... discs devoted to
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BBC broadcasts. That is just really unbelievable.
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Her playing is not to be believed. Also, there's
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a Berceuse that's available only as a download
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on the Orpheus label. This was a label that was
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distributed ages ago by Musical Heritage Society.
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This is an interesting Berserk with Ruth Slenzinska.
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She turned 100 years old in January 2025, by
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the way. And there's one point in this performance
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where she markedly relaxes the tempo in order
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to allow the trills much more room to maneuver.
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And this is a rather unorthodox touch, but I
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think it totally works. She really makes a case
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for it. Leon Fleischer's Berceuse on the Vanguard
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label may not have the same kind of seamless
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passage work and evenness that you get from Solomon
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or Marc -Andre Hamelin, but his sense of timing
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and his sense of tension and release constantly
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holds your attention way beyond the music's surface
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charm. And every time I listen to this Leon Fleischer
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berceuse, I always hear new things. And I can
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say the same for Murray Pariah, who seems to
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synthesize the best qualities of all the recordings
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I've spoken about. Courtauld's very personal
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rubato, Ashkenazi's time -stopping final pages,
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Solomon's evenness. Kempf's ethereal independence
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of lines, Hamelin's Je Perlais, and so on and
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so forth. For his gramophone survey, actually,
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Bryce Morrison chose Marie Pariah as the top
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choice. And that's also my inclination, which
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is not to rule out any of the other recordings
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I've spoken about. My advice is sample all of
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these pianists and draw your own conclusions.
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And maybe you can let me know which Berceau's
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recording is your favorite or which of several
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Berceau's recordings are your favorite for that
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matter. And I know that you will have a favorite
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version of the Berceau's that I did not mention
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and that you're going to chastise me for not
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including it in this talk. or else you'll make
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me aware of a really worthwhile berceuse that
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I should know about, and you will do so in a
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civil manner, right? Right. It is true that your
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comments have all been really very civil since
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I've started this podcast. There have been one
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or two exceptions, but I deleted them. But honestly,
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I'm always grateful for your feedback and for
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how you bring recordings to my attention, just
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as... I try to bring recordings to your attention.
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You know, the whole point of this podcast is
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to generate a dialogue and to share our mutual
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passion and obsession about piano recordings.
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I can be a guide, but you can guide me back.
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You know, why not? This is Jed Disler, and you've
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been listening to The Piano Maven, your friendly
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podcast guide to piano recordings. So happy Bersusing,
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and I look forward to being with you for our
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next episode.