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Chopin Mazurka Cycle Madness Part 3 · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

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This is Jed Disler, and welcome to The Piano
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Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano recordings.
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And we are continuing our journey through numerous
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recorded cycles of the Chopin mazurkas. We're
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keeping to pianists who've recorded the standard
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51 mazurkas, or who've recorded Additional posthumously
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published pieces, most of which date from Chopin's
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youth. Before we continue discussing Chopin mazurka
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cycles, I want to take a moment to mention collections
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of selected mazurkas by pianists, because these
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collections all play prominent roles within the
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Chopin mazurka discography. And we have to start
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with the most mazurking of all mazurka players.
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Ignaz Friedman. He recorded a series of 12 mazurkas
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in September 1930. He also recorded several of
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these pieces on different occasions earlier on,
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and there have been alternate takes that have
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surfaced. But these 1930 sessions, oh my God,
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Friedman's mazurkas truly mazurk. They just don't
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sing and dance. positively soared of the sky,
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few pianists have come remotely close to matching
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Friedman's singular combination of symphonic
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scope, rhythmic snap, and rustic abandon. And
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bass lines are strategically timed for maximum
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lift, and he frequently adds octaves or he fills
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out chords in the bass. You remember the catchphrase
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for Rice Krispie Cereal, snap, crackle, and pop?
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Well, these words perfectly describe Ignaz Friedman's
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mazurkas. These are just epic performances, and
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no self -respecting piano maven can be without
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them. But at the opposite end of Ignaz Friedman,
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you have Marilla Jonas, or Jonas. who was a Polish
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pianist, and she was totally unknown and obscure
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when she made her Carnegie Hall debut in 1946
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to a nearly empty house. But she got a rave review
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in the New York Herald Tribune, and all of a
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sudden, this shy and reticent pianist... turned
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into an overnight star. And her star eventually
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faded after a couple of seasons. But she recorded
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an album of mazurkas that was kind of a holy
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grail among collectors. Maybe you can call her
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the anti -Freedman because she casts a kind of
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wispy yet very... visible shadow on the textures,
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primarily focusing on shaping melodies. She takes
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a lot of leeway as far as rubato is concerned,
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but the rubatos always feel natural and organic.
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This is Marilia Jonas. And in a similar way,
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the Mazurka album that Guillemar Nováez recorded
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for the Vox label in the 1950s is stylistically
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similar. And also, Jura Guller, the pianist,
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set down some interesting and sometimes idiosyncratic,
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yet very personal kinds of Mazurka interpretations
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in the 1950s. Vladimir Horowitz also kept a handful
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of mazurkas in his repertoire. And in 1949, he
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set down a whole bunch of them in a recording
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session in New York's Town Hall. There's always
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a nervous tension and a neurotic undercurrent
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to Horowitz and the mazurkas. He always keeps
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listeners on edge. You have to talk about William
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Capel, because he was working his way through
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a complete Mazurka cycle for RCA Victor, and
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he never finished it because he was tragically
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killed in a plane crash in 1953. He recorded
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about half of the Mazurkas, more or less. Interestingly...
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He apparently took a casual attitude toward the
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mazurkas, where he'd often play them spontaneously
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at the end of a recording session if there was
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time left over, or he'd even sight -read a mazurka
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while the tape was rolling. And there's a lot
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of poetry and seriousness to his playing, but
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I... often find Capel's mazurkas to sound a little
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studied and without a lot of variety in the interpretations,
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which is odd because he did approach them so
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spontaneously. But I know many piano mavens feel
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very differently and they just think of, you
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know, Capel's mazurkas as second to none. And
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they are really wonderful in their way. And also
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there are the ten mazurkas that Arturo Benedetti
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Michelangeli recorded for Deutsche Grammophon.
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I've used the words fire and ice to describe
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these interpretations, and I'll just leave it
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at that. Let's see, who else has a good selected
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mazurkas collection that I should mention? Oh
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yes, Clara Min recorded 17 mazurkas for the Delos
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label. You know, she microscopically projects
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inner voices and she comes up with these heart
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-stopping tenutos and outsized dynamics. And
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sometimes she exaggerates the dotted rhythms.
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And there are all kinds of interpretive bits
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of business, but she's very convincing. Also,
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the pianist Marianne Chiappura has a CD that's
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called Images of a Homeland. And it was released.
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In the year 2000 on the... Patria label. I think
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that may have been his own label. But this disc
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contains 14 mazurkas in addition to other selections.
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And I've always enjoyed Marian Kiepura's mazurkas
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for the subtle give and take of his rubatos and
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the care he takes with the ornaments and how
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the phrases just float over the bar lines. It's
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very idiomatic and really lovely mazurka playing.
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Also very interesting are the selection of 24
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mazurkas that Pavel Kolesnikov has recorded for
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Hyperion. He's a very multi -leveled interpreter
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who brings equal amounts of delicacy, poetry,
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rhythmic firmness, and unabashed virtuosity to
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these works. And I hope eventually that he will...
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complete all of the mazurkas because I think
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that will be one of the most interesting complete
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cycles if he gets around to it. But let's now
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go to complete mazurka cycles, continuing what
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we've talked about over the last two episodes.
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I'm going to start off with a curiosity. Back
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in 1985, that was 40 years ago, goodness gracious.
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I was browsing around in the Tower Records classical
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annex on East 4th Street in New York City, where
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they had a lot of... cutouts and budget items
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and there was a rack of historic piano cassettes
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on the label concert artists this was the label
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started by william barrington coop on this label
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he issued about 100 or so cds allegedly recorded
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by his wife the pianist joyce hatto and of course
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all of these Joyce Hattow recordings were stolen
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from recordings by other pianists. I've discussed
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the Joyce Hattow hoax on an earlier episode.
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Anyway, among these cheap cassettes on the concert
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artist label, was a set of three cassettes devoted
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to the Chopin mazurkas as played by Alfred Courtauld.
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Now, since I'm a huge Alfred Courtauld fan, and
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back then I was trying to get hold of every Courtauld
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disc I could get my hands on, I was kind of intrigued
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because I had never seen, let alone heard of,
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a complete mazurka cycle listed in... any Cortot
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discography. And at first I thought, well, maybe
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these were unpublished recordings on his label
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EMI or HMV, or maybe these were recordings made
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at the École Normale in Paris where Cortot taught.
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And I knew that there were some recordings of
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Cortot playing Beethoven sonatas done at the
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École Normale, which... had not been issued.
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I think they were rumored. Eventually they did
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come out, at least some of these. Anyway, I had
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no clue what these were, but I figured, you know,
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what the heck. I bought the cassettes, and they
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were cheap enough, like $2 a cassette. I brought
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them home, and I listened, and I thought... You
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know, this is very flaccid and very tentative
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playing with a real flimsy sonority. It doesn't
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sound like Courtauld to me. It doesn't have the
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big sound and the virility and the intention
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of his best Chopin recordings. And I remember
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when I told my late friend Alan Evans, the record
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producer and musicologist, about these, Joyce.
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not Joyce Haddow, about these Alfred Courtauld,
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Chopin, Mazurkas, he also was intrigued and he
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got hold of the set and he doubted the authenticity
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of these recordings from the get -go. Maybe they
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really were by Joyce Haddow. I don't know. The
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pianist has never been identified. Eventually,
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William Barrington Koop brought out these alleged
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Alfred Courtauld, Chopin, Mazurkas on CDs. And
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I do have copies of the CDs. But again, who is
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the pianist? Now, interestingly enough, when
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EMI, now Warner Classics, brought out their 40
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-disc box set of the complete Alfred Courtauld.
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There were two Mazurkas included, and all it
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said was that they were recorded in 1950. I was
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a little suspicious, so I played these, and sure
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enough, these were recordings that were absolutely
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identical to the same performances on those concert
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hall discs. Again, were they really Courtauld?
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I doubt it, but someone may know better than
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I do. I mean, I have no idea. However, among
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out -of -print mazurka cycles that are not just
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authentic, but totally desirable, I want to mention
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recordings by Karen Kushner on the Connoisseur
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Society label. I don't remember when she recorded
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these, but the sonics are wonderful, and her
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playing is eloquence personified. She brings
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so much depth and intelligence to her interpretations.
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So if you ever see the Karen Kushner Chopin Mazurka
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cycle on Connoisseur Society, grab it without
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hesitation. Ido Beret recorded all of the mazurkas
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as part of her Chopin piano music cycle on Noxus.
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The sonics aren't the greatest, and sometimes
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her rubatos can be coy or mannered, but I just
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like the fact that she plays with the music,
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and she always holds your attention. Now, if
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you can find it, Vasily Primakov recorded all
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of the mazurkas for his own LP label. He had
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recorded a selection of 21 mazurkas for Bridge
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previously. Some of these I enjoyed, but some
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I found... kind of perverse or willful. Anyway,
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he recorded the whole Kitten Caboodle in 2014
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for his own label. And by then, he had become
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a more decisive interpreter with more variety
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of dynamic contrasts. And sometimes his phrase
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taperings or his slight hesitancies before reaching
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a climax still strike me as being coy or mannered.
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But Primakov's best performance really do stand
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the test of time. I like this Mazurka cycle quite
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a lot. However, you get equal subjectivity but
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more consistency from the Mazurka cycle by Dmitri
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Alekseev. This came out on the Frederick Chopin
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Institute's label not long after they brought
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out the Adam Horovatsyets cycle that I talked
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about on our first Mazurka episode. Grab the
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Dimitri -Alexei Mazurka cycle if you can find
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it. Unfortunately, Steinway and Sons withdrew.
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Miriam Conti's marvelous mazurka cycle for their
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label, most likely because she decamped over
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to Yamaha. Now, she recorded these mazurkas in
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the Bronx studio owned and operated by my dear
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and late friend, Joseph Patrick. And I reviewed
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this set for classicstoday .com, so I thought
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I would just read a little bit of my review.
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I wrote that fusing intellect and instinct, Miriam
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Conti clearly has thought these amazingly inventive
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and diverse pieces through, insofar as tempi,
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tone color, voicings, and ornamentation are concerned.
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I'll cite one cogent example. Conti begins the
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C -sharp minor op. 33 No. 1's unaccompanied modal
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melody in an unusually soft and offhanded manner.
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But once the left hand enters, the pianist increases
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intensity, not so much in volume as by way of
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subtle legato phrasing, where notes seem to overlap
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by a split second, as if attempting to make the
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piano notes slide into one another in the manner
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of a singer. So do try to find Miriam Conti's
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Chopin -Mazurka cycle you will be glad that you
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did. Janina Fielkowska's 2008 and 2011 all Chopin
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recital discs for the Atma Klassik label included
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a total of seven mazurkas in highly distinctive
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and original interpretations that boded well
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for a comprehensive mazurka survey from this
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pianist. And sure enough, my prayers were answered
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when Fielkowska recorded the entire mazurka cycle.
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in 2012 and 2013, including new versions of the
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aforementioned seven pieces. Her conceptions
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often recall her mentor, Arthur Rubinstein's
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late period mazurka playing in regard to lyrical
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breadth, a thoroughly internalized sense of rubato.
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and an ability to savor felicitous details without
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exaggeration or overly lingering. For example,
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check out Fiolkovska's rumination over Op. 24
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No. 4's contrapuntal layers. or Op. 50 No. 3's
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finely -tuned modulations, you sense that Janina
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Fielkowska has lived with and thought about these
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works for a very long time before setting them
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down for posterity. The engineering is excellent,
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and Fielkowska also contributed her own really
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perceptive and insightful annotations, so her
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Mazurka cycle is definitely a keeper. I talked
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about some eccentric mazurkas on the previous
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episode, and so now I have to talk about Jean
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-Marc Luisada. Yes, I know he's been a great
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mentor for certain young pianists who've been
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participating in the Chopin competition. Apparently,
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he learned most of the repertoire for his 1992
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Deutsche Grammophon recordings of the mazurkas.
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with only two months' notice. But that's neither
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here or there, because he signed off on the project.
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In any event, he focuses more on nuts, bolts,
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and sundry details than the proverbial big picture
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or general pulse of a piece, and he seems to
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favor complexity over simplicity. For example,
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in the DG recordings, Luisada subjects the four
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opus 67 mazurkas to microscopic variations of
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articulation and voicing. He stretches the opus
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7 number 1 B -flat mazurkas trills to... dangerous
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boundaries. And he underlines Opus 63 No. 3's
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canon through dynamic extremes and playing the
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lines ever so slightly out of sync. It's not
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very subtle playing. But, you know, these are
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quirky, but they're not uninteresting interpretations.
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And for this cycle on DG, he only played the
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mazurkas with opus numbers, and he left out the
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Émile Guélard and the Notre -Dame pieces in A
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minor. Louis Sada, by the way, re -recorded the
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mazurkas for RCA in 2008. And I imagine this
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time he didn't have a two -month deadline. But
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the remakes basically follow the earlier interpretation's
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hyper -detailed game plan, with more left -hand
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anticipations and more blurred peddlings this
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time around. And for whatever reason, Luisada
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did not record Op. 68 No. 4. for RCA. Anyway,
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he's another pianist whose mazurkas are best
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sampled in small doses. There's a cycle I forgot
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to mention that is quite interesting, speaking
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of quirky and subjective, and it features the
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Polish pianist Andrzej Wasowski, who lived from
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1919 until 1993. In January 1981, he gave a concert
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at New York City's Alice Tully Hall, where he
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played the entire cycle of mazurkas in concert.
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Had anyone done that before in New York City?
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I have no idea. But his 1980 studio recordings
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of the cycle reveal a very subjective and free
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approach, as if the pianist was in a constantly
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exploratory mood. He likes broad tempos and he
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likes introspection. He likes to savor felicitous
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turns of harmony and melody. Yet somehow I never
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find my attention wandering, nor do I... I grow
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impatient. And I really feel that Vassavsky is
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sincere. I don't get the feeling of contrivance
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that I hear from Jean -Marc Louis Sade. Not that
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there's anything wrong with contrivance, but
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there's more of an inner flow and continuity
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with Vassavsky. Perhaps a loose continuity, if
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you will. You know what I mean. Now, one of my
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very, very favorite mazurka cycles was recorded,
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I think, in 1988, featuring the late, great Brazilian
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pianist Antonio Barbosa Lima. He actually had
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recorded the mazurkas before on a small Brazilian
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label in 1983, but these are all but impossible
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to find, and besides, the sound quality is kind
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of dry, so you're not really missing anything.
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But the 1980... recordings on centaur are the
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ones to have and they feature mazurka playing
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with great exuberance great spontaneity lots
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of color lots of imagination rhythmic elan I
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mean, this is everything you can possibly want
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in a mazurka player. You just cannot miss this
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cycle. And it would be my overall first choice.
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But, however, there is a mazurka cycle that's
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just a little bit more consistent and steady,
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yet no less stimulating and personal. And if
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I was forced to choose just one Chopin mazurka
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cycle from the... many versions I've been discussing,
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I would pick the one by Garrick Olson. It first
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appeared on Arabesque, and it was reissued on
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Hyperion as part of this pianist's complete Chopin
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piano work cycle for that label. So what makes
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Garrick Olson's mazurkas stand out from the crowd?
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What makes them so special? I think he strikes
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an ideal balance between Rubinstein's thoughtfulness
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and Horowitz's nervous energy with a light and
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transparent and even airy touch that brings out
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the skittish and playful qualities one often
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finds in the Mazurkas. Garrick Olson pays attention
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to the subtle modulations and inner voices by
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illuminating them, but without belaboring the
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obvious. And he finds just the right fusion of
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old school and modern Chopin styles. And I always
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hear something new every time I return to these
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performances. So although there never can be
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just one way to play the Chopin mazurkas, I think
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you will be rewarded by making Garrick Olson
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your point of entry. And then from there, of
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course, you can explore all of these many other
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versions of Chopin's mazurkas to your heart's
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content. This is Jed Disler. And you've been
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listening to The Piano Maven, your friendly podcast
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guide to piano recordings. And we have some more
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Chopin recordings to talk about on upcoming episodes.
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So please join me for those. Take good care and
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thank you for listening.