Best Interpreter and Subsequent Recording of the Chopin Etudes

[phil13]

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

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

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

[Mozartian]

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.

Cziffra has a great set as well (I can send you either or both if you like, Phil).

[phil13]

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

Phil

[ganymed]

maurizio pollino !!

[pianistimo]

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

[imbetter]

perahia

[walking_encyclopedia]

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.

[phil13]

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

[elevateme_returns]

i like pollini's and perahia's.

i HATE HATE HATE gavrilovs. CRAP on toast

[etudes]

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

[Kassaa]

perahia

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

[deboerbarry]

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

[elevateme_returns]

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_returns]

and ondine for that matter

[franzliszt2]

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

[pita bread]

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.

[Kassaa]

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.

[elevateme_returns]

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_returns]

electrafinger's scarbo in the audition room is 5000 times better than gavrilovs

[JP]

Back to original topic..

Cortot.

[opus10no2]

[elevateme_returns]

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

how is perahia's unmusical?

[opus10no2]

elevate me ♂

[jas]

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.

[steinwaymodeld]

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

[steinwaymodeld]

would like to change my opinion to:

David Saperton

best chopin etude set ever

[cloches_de_geneve]

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.

[counterpoint]

Yuki Matsuzawa

[jakev2.0]

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

[drone]

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

[franzliszt2]

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

[frederic chopin]

Lugansky.