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Remembering the great Maurizio Pollini
Legendary pianist Maurizio Pollini defined modern piano playing through a combination of virtuosity of the highest degree, a complete sense of musical purpose and commitment that works in complete control of the virtuosity. His passing was announced by Milan’s La Scala opera house on March 23. Read more >>

Topic: Best Interpreter and Subsequent Recording of the Chopin Etudes  (Read 8283 times)

Offline phil13

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OMG a question about the Chopets that doesn't appear to have been asked before!  :o

(Of course, I could be wrong- this is just from about a half-hour of searching for a thread on this topic.  ;D)

Doesn't have to necessarily include the Nouvelles, but the interpreter must have performed and recorded both Op.10 and Op.25.

Personally, I think Ashkenazy's early recording of the set (Melodiya, NOT Decca) is spectactular. Fast, crisp, clear, and beautifully shaped.

Phil

Offline Mozartian

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I'm actually a fan of Cortot's etudes- full of mistakes, it's true, but he's one of the few who actually make the etudes sound like music. :P

Cziffra has a great set as well (I can send you either or both if you like, Phil).
[lau] 10:01 pm: like in 10/4 i think those little slurs everywhere are pointless for the music, but I understand if it was for improving technique

Offline phil13

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Sure, I'd appreciate the Cziffra. I have Cortot's set.  :)

Phil

Offline ganymed

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maurizio pollino !! :D
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Offline pianistimo

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seconded.  i've never heard cortot's though.  suppose that despite a few errors- he sure had a handle on the fingerings. 

Offline imbetter

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perahia
"My advice to young musicians: Quit music! There is no choice. It has to be a calling, and even if it is and you think there's a choice, there is no choice"-Vladimir Feltsman

Offline walking_encyclopedia

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I think the title of your thread is a non sequiter. Many recordings are edited, chopped to bits, and cut and pasted together.

Perhaps we should consider the best interpreter to be the best performer of the etudes, though not necessarily one who plays the entire etudes in recital a la Louis Lortie, but one who performs some of them.

Just a thought.

Offline phil13

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I think the title of your thread is a non sequiter. Many recordings are edited, chopped to bits, and cut and pasted together.

Perhaps we should consider the best interpreter to be the best performer of the etudes, though not necessarily one who plays the entire etudes in recital a la Louis Lortie, but one who performs some of them.

Just a thought.



There are recordings of the Chopets that were made before the concept of editing was even around, as there are of many others. I agree, there are many that are chopped and re-set so they sound perfect, but there are also many that are not. (Ashkenazy's, if I recall correctly, is one of those that was not.)

Should we solve this w/ an asterisk on the edited recordings?  ;) Edited or not, a recording made by a true artist is still fantastic.

Phil

Offline elevateme_returns

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i like pollini's and perahia's.

i HATE HATE HATE gavrilovs. CRAP on toast
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Offline etudes

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i like pollini's and perahia's.

i HATE HATE HATE gavrilovs. CRAP on toast
unfortunately mr.Gavrilov plays gaspard much better than you...and his etude set is not that bad and cheap
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Offline Kassaa

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perahia
Boring note-perfect recording, I'd rather hear a midi than Perahia for musicality. I love Cortot's recording.

Offline deboerbarry

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I've got the Cziffra set. Fantastic playing, hugely exciting & entertaining but not exactly Chopin. If you want the three Nouvelles Etudes, try the Rubinstein.
I'd go with Pollini for the Op 10 & 25
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Offline elevateme_returns

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unfortunately mr.Gavrilov plays gaspard much better than you...and his etude set is not that bad and cheap

how can you tell he plays gaspard better than me? obviously my ondine in the audition room is pants because i was forced into putting it there to prove myself. i havent posted a decent ondine gibet or scarbo.

in my opinion, his etudes are awful. its just him banging the keys, no colour or musicality, same as his scarbo
elevateme's joke of the week:
If John Terry was a Spartan, the movie 300 would have been called "1."

Offline elevateme_returns

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and ondine for that matter
elevateme's joke of the week:
If John Terry was a Spartan, the movie 300 would have been called "1."

Offline franzliszt2

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Gavrilov's etudes are plain BAD!!!!! Fast......but bad!!! Get a musical ear please then pass judgment

Offline pita bread

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how can you tell he plays gaspard better than me? obviously my ondine in the audition room is pants because i was forced into putting it there to prove myself. i havent posted a decent ondine gibet or scarbo.

in my opinion, his etudes are awful. its just him banging the keys, no colour or musicality, same as his scarbo

Have you actually listened to his Gaspard? No color or musicality? What on earth are you talking about man...

Even his brutal live Scarbo is colorful. He juxtaposes fast and dry playing with huge pedal effects at dramatic moments to create gashes of color against a black-and-white picture.

Offline Kassaa

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Gavrilov's etudes are plain BAD!!!!! Fast......but bad!!! Get a musical ear please then pass judgment
His slower etudes are awesome and beautiful, like the middle section of 25/5, 10/3,  his fast etudes are powerful, Gavrilov's etudes are fantastic.

Offline elevateme_returns

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Have you actually listened to his Gaspard? No color or musicality? What on earth are you talking about man...

Even his brutal live Scarbo is colorful. He juxtaposes fast and dry playing with huge pedal effects at dramatic moments to create gashes of color against a black-and-white picture.

what a load of sh*t. lol when so many wrong notes are hit, it shatters the effect of the piece completely. even if he hit right notes the sound is awful, either FFF or ppp, he stamps on the pedal, he basically plays like a 6 year old. he speeds up and slows down so much, it sounds like he's drunk. its absolutely awful! i'm watching it now. he has no sense of phrasing, terrible sound, its just ... a  terrible terrible performance  .  when he gets to difficult bits he slows right down. aaaggh i hate it so much
elevateme's joke of the week:
If John Terry was a Spartan, the movie 300 would have been called "1."

Offline elevateme_returns

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electrafinger's scarbo in the audition room is 5000 times better than gavrilovs
elevateme's joke of the week:
If John Terry was a Spartan, the movie 300 would have been called "1."

Offline JP

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Back to original topic..

Cortot.

Offline opus10no2

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Da SDC Piano Forum :
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Offline elevateme_returns

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Boring note-perfect recording, I'd rather hear a midi than Perahia for musicality. I love Cortot's recording.

how is perahia's unmusical?
elevateme's joke of the week:
If John Terry was a Spartan, the movie 300 would have been called "1."

Offline opus10no2

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elevate me ♂
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Offline jas

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I love Berezovsky's 1991 recording on Apex (not sure if it's still available). Pollini's, Cortot's and Sokolov's op.25 are favourites of mine too, but Berezovsky's are just something else. His technique is, as usual, flawless, but is hidden beneath the spontaneity and lyricism you can hear in his playing. It seems not so much of an "interpretation" as a natural and effortless rendering of something that already was - as though you're hearing the music itself rather than a pianist playing it. It's their Chopinesque nature that really gets me; obviously, no one can know how the man himself played them, but Berezovsky's just feel "right". They give me that irreplaceable feeling of being transported back to the time in which they were written, a kind of shivery nostalgia.

Pollini's are impressively virtuosic but a little too percussive. For me they sound like what they are - a modern-day recording of music composed in a very different time for a very different piano. Some may see this as a positive thing; I suppose it depends on what you look for in a recording. And Sokolov didn't record op.10 (or did he...?).

I'm sure others will disagree with my view completely, which is fair enough. But if the earth-shattering genius of the "Gavrilov is crap!", "No, you're crap!!" discussion above is anything to go by then I'd probably rather not hear about it. :)

Offline steinwaymodeld

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I love Berezovsky's 1991 recording on Apex (not sure if it's still available). Pollini's, Cortot's and Sokolov's op.25 are favourites of mine too, but Berezovsky's are just something else. His technique is, as usual, flawless, but is hidden beneath the spontaneity and lyricism you can hear in his playing. It seems not so much of an "interpretation" as a natural and effortless rendering of something that already was - as though you're hearing the music itself rather than a pianist playing it. It's their Chopinesque nature that really gets me; obviously, no one can know how the man himself played them, but Berezovsky's just feel "right". They give me that irreplaceable feeling of being transported back to the time in which they were written, a kind of shivery nostalgia.

Pollini's are impressively virtuosic but a little too percussive. For me they sound like what they are - a modern-day recording of music composed in a very different time for a very different piano. Some may see this as a positive thing; I suppose it depends on what you look for in a recording. And Sokolov didn't record op.10 (or did he...?).

I'm sure others will disagree with my view completely, which is fair enough. But if the earth-shattering genius of the "Gavrilov is crap!", "No, you're crap!!" discussion above is anything to go by then I'd probably rather not hear about it. :)

I do disagree with u about berezovsky, as much as I love him as a pianist for other recordings and performance. His Chopin etude is bounded to be one of the worst i have heard (not including rec like Rusnack), his approach is just so conservative and so repetitive. It sounds more like an old man trying to repeat himself. His recent Chopin, Chopin/Godowsky etude CD is much better, more elegant, more ideas, much more beautifully played.

I love Cortot Sokolov of course, Sokolov's live Op.25 is still setting benchmark of this set till this very day. Also Claudio Arrau's chopin etude recording, so very elegant, in an 'old master' kinda way, weird this recording hasn't been mentioned more often.
As weird as (and contrary belief to my SDC root), i do enjoy recordings such as Cortot and even the first rec of the complete set of Chopet by Backhaus (always like his).
Pollini's DG's recording is so fabricated, in both musical and recording sense.
His 14's yrs old Italian live radio broadcast is MUUCCHHHOOOO more superior, i really don't know what happened to him since then, it's all downhill from there it seems. (Kinda like Kissin)

Ashkenazy's early set sure is damn nice, probably one of my favorite recording of his by him.

John Browning is probably the best 'value for money' set u will ever get. balance on both musical and technical aspects. (U can imagine like Weissenberg playing complete Chopin etudes i guess)

of course Rafael Orocoz is always reliable. (the distribution of this recording is not though, unfortunately)

Murrary Perehia's chopin etude are getting mixed comments I see, but that is definately one of the CD that opened my eyes to the 'technical chopin'. And his 10/1 is actually very carefully planned in voicing. he must have practiced his ass off for that particular etude i felt.

o and of course my very favorite: SERGIO FIORENTINO
Perfection itself is imperfection - Vladimir Horowitz

Offline steinwaymodeld

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would like to change my opinion to:

David Saperton

best chopin etude set ever
Perfection itself is imperfection - Vladimir Horowitz

Offline cloches_de_geneve

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CORTOT is unmatched

POLLINI is a historical pillar

BUT

there is also something to be said in defense of LUGANSKI's recent, amazingly subtle interpretation of both op. 10 & op. 25, GEZA ANDA's incisive op. 25 or Lazar BERMANS's unbelievable, early recordings of several etudes, especially his mind-boggling one-minute op. 10/2.

"It's true that I've driven through a number of red lights on occasion, but on the other hand I've stopped at a lot of green ones but never gotten credit for it." -- Glenn Gould

Offline counterpoint

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Yuki Matsuzawa
If it doesn't work - try something different!

Offline jakev2.0

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Ignaz Friedman is the greatest performer of Chopin Etudes; regrettably, he didn't record enough of them!

Offline drone

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I like the etudes Richter played, but he did not record all of them so I am not sure he counts in your discussion.

Offline franzliszt2

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I agree with Jake. If you havn't heard Friedman play op10no7 you are seriously missing out

Offline frederic chopin

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Lugansky.
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