BaL 18.03.23 - Chopin: Piano Concerto no. 2 in F minor

[Barbirollians]

I’ve never had any problem with the orchestration either, I can’t hear that it’s inferior to other concertos of the period.

I do though have a problem with one moment in No 2 - there’s a big and sudden modulation for everyone in the last movement which I find really crass, and almost dread. Nice enough stuff in the first two movements but I’ve never found it rises above ‘pretty’.

In contrast, I’ve loved No 1 from my teenage years until now - by a huge margin my favourite of the two. That slow movement…

So I’m rather sorry BAL is considering the wrong one…

Didn't Sarah Walker do the first only a few years ago ?

[Barbirollians]

I had my own mini-BAL comparison session for Chopin Piano Concerto 1 - I didn't like Zimerman/PFO in 1 - found the changes in mood & tempo baffling. But I really liked his version with LAPO/Giulini - my library choice after comparing many. It comes with a reasonable 2, but I await this BAL with interest... (Side note - it was top Penguin choice for both concertos in 1999...)

I find it very hard to consider Pollini /Kletzki as surpassed in No1 - as much as I love Argerich, Lipatti et al.

[Barbirollians]

Thanks, each way bet landed anyway!

Amazon have this disc at £5.99 new, a great bargain I’d say.

Mega bargain - snap it up if you do not have it. I was less impressed by that chamber version - Kevin Kenner's playing all a bit too knowing and over emphatic for me in those extracts.

[jayne lee wilson]

I felt the surveyor sounded uncomfortable in his role, vocally and intellectually: rather stiffly delivered, routine comparison of tempo, tone, types of piano etc.....
With an ultra-safe final recommend, it all made for rather a dull Bal. The Gramophone is 100 years old in April; if only RR could bring back some of the Pro-Reviewers for their celebration.

But but but!
I would recommend Kenneth Hamilton's book on the history of Pianos, Pianists and the performance practices of the last three centuries very highly indeed. Anyone who has taken against inter-movement applause (eg at The Proms) needs to read the chapter "With Due Respect" to understand how almost silent, polite reverence between movements has been a relatively recent phenomenon, just as reverence and closely-literal performance of the score itself is; which phenomenon the book also goes into intricate and very carefully researched detail about.

He has a brilliantly lucid, very attractive prose style.... so the book is very engaging intellectually and emotionally. See a substantial excerpt here...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0195178262?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

[CallMePaul]

Cortot had an advantage in that when he went to Paris to begin his career it was still, despite Haussman's rebuilding, a city of cobbled streets, horse carriages, oil lamps, and it was possible to meet men who had known the composer (including one of Cortot's teachers, I think).

He remains my favourite Chopin pianist; as with Schnabel in Beethoven, no matter how many fine interpretations there have been since, there's an extra dimension to the music with these old fellows.

Paul Kildea's excellent Chopin's Piano, although largely concentrating on the op24 preludes, discusses the varying styles of Chopin interpretation in the second part of the 19th century and early part of the 20th, and comes to some fascinating conclusions. You are right about Cortot's "grand-pupil" relationship to Chopin.

[Barbirollians]

I have picked up the Cho/Noseda cheaply and think it is rather fine. He is a very subtle and interesting young pianist as he showed on his Debussy recital record.