the Chopin Currency - July 7th, 2008

Chopin News, Reviews, and Previews:

A Souvenir From Vladimir Horowitz
New York Sun - United States

A just-released "souvenir" CD from "one of the great uneven performers in all history" Vladimir Horowitz's very last recital (from June of 1987) hits its highest points with Chopin: "The event took place in Hamburg, allowing the record label, Deutsche Grammophon, to call the album "Horowitz in Hamburg." A little alliteration is always appreciated."

We then have a Chopin mazurka, the one in B minor, Op. 33, No. 4 — and Horowitz plays it with perfect rhythmic sense. The bend and snap of that thing are amazing. He plays it very purely, too, with complete refinement.

In this piece — on this track — Horowitz is in total control of his fingers. There is no old-man faltering.

He ends the printed program with Chopin's "Heroic" Polonaise — so often associated with Rubinstein, but played for decades by Horowitz, too.

Does Horowitz have enough technique — in 1987 — to get through it? Yes. And he summons up plenty of charisma. Or rather, he doesn't summon it up: It simply flows from him, naturally.

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Discovering Poland’s heritage at St James Cavalier
Malta Independent Online - Malta

If there's Polish culture on display in Malta, Chopin cannot be far from the picture....

A piano recital by the pianist Pawel Mazurkiewicz from Poland preceded the opening of the exhibition. He performed works by Bach, Chopin, Scriabin, Grieg, Gershwin and Debussy.

Prizewinner of the prestigious Swiss music prize, Prix Credit Suisse – Jeunes Solistes 2003, Pawel Mazurkiewicz was born in Warsaw and graduated with distinction from the Frederic Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw in 2000. In 2004 he graduated also with distinction and with Eduard Tschumi Music Prize from the University of Arts in Bern. He is currently assistant professor of the Piano class at the University of Arts in Bern, Switzerland. He has started composing, arranging and performing jazz music as an addition to his classical repertoire...

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Chopin in the Blogosphere:

My favourite Chopin recordings
By Stephanie Delacey

A nice post that's both entertaining, and well-researched, with audio to boot: "Here are my top ten Chopin recordings (all, interestingly enough, historical recordings made more than fifty years ago…):" In the Top 10: Dinu Lipatti, Solomon, Alfred Cortot, and even Percy Grainger...

...
Stephanie's Pillowbook - http://pillowbook.co.uk

The Chopin Currency - June 24th, 2008

Chopin News, Reviews, & Previews:

Flying bison and half a cup of coffee

Three out of four stars in this review in the UK Spectator of Michael Moran's much-discussed new book A Country in the Moon: Travels in the Heart of Poland.

The author’s uncle was a concert pianist who harboured a passion for Chopin. He extracted a deathbed promise from his nephew to ‘visit those places Chopin frequented as a young man . . . to better understand the patriotic roots of Chopin’s music’ and implored him ‘to scatter his ashes over the Mazovia plain near Chopin’s birthplace’. This was the genesis of the author’s engagement with Poland. [...]

There is so much to admire in this well-researched and hugely entertaining book, and so much to learn. Certainly, I did not know that Poles regard their country as ‘the reincarnation of the suffering Christ’. That Schumann described Chopin’s music as ‘cannons hidden among flowers’. That the national composer of Poland left Poland at the age of 20, never to return. That Polish aristocrats once claimed descent from nomadic archers of Iranian stock related to the Scythians. That under communism, Poles could buy half a cup of coffee if they were too poor to afford a full cup. That many Poles hold that entry into the European Union was ‘the onset of moral decay’.

Spectator - The Magazine - http://www.spectator.co.uk

Chopin Videos:
Alfred Cortot - Great Interpreter of Chopin
By Issykitty

(http://issykitty.videosift.com)

From a new video-sharing site called Videosift: "He looked for the opium in music"

http://vintage.videosift.com/unsifted

Chopin in the Blogosphere:

Frédéric Chopin 1810-1849
By Administrator
Great Composers and their Lives... - http://ferrisguitar.com/blog

Blog entry from a guitarist-turned-webucator regarding our man Chopin...

The first concerts that he gave abroad were in Vienna, Austria. He was charmed by life outside his country and eventually ended up leaving Poland for good, settling in France in 1831. His father was originally a Frenchman, hence the name he was given Frédéric Chopin.
(*His name is pronounced by correctly reading the following in English accenting the bold print: fre der eek – shou pa)

The Chopin Currency - March 9, 2008

Chopin News, Reviews, and Previews:

Pianist Alfred Brendel to give his final Chicago performance

Chicago Tribune - United States

On his farewell tour of the USA, pianist Alfred Brendel is not in the mood to second-guess his repertory choices over the years:

At the same time he makes no apologies for avoiding the piano works of Chopin, believing that he could never surpass what the legendary French pianist Alfred Cortot achieved in his Chopin performances and recordings from the late 1920s and early '30s. The only major piano piece Brendel regrets never having performed is Bach's "Goldberg" Variations.

He takes a somewhat jaundiced view of the present generation of pianists, finding fault with many of them for what he believes is their rather cavalier disregard of the composers' intentions as stated on the printed page. "I still would like to hear a decent performance of a Mozart or a Beethoven concerto from one of them," he says dryly.

At the same time he makes no apologies for avoiding the piano works of Chopin, believing that he could never surpass what the legendary French pianist ...
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Yundi Li Recital in La Jolla
SanDiego.com - San Diego,CA,USA

Another mixed review for the young Chinese pianist and Chopin Competition winner, this time from a San Diego critic who finds his performance uneven and puzzling...

At age 25 he has earned his celebrity, but during the first half of his oddly mannered Friday recital at Sherwood Auditorium, La Jolla, the young Chinese virtuoso seemed to be asking the Peggy Lee question, “Is That All There Is?”His bouquet of Mozart and Chopin—staples of his repertory—seemed a bit withered....

...Another disappointment was the familiar Chopin E-flat Major Nocturne, Op. 9, No. 2, which Li made overly cautious and precise, a teacherly example for a slow student. That Chopin staple, the "Andante spinato et Grande Polonaise Brillante," Op. 22, rushed past the listener full throttle, but without much interpretive comment. "Here it is; take it or leave it," seemed to be the performer's message.

There were a few moments, however, when Li’s creative musical personality burst through this ennui. The opening and closing minor-mode mazurkas of “Four Mazurkas,” Op. 33, sounded as if they were being improvised on the spot, with impetuous verve and a vibrant sense of pulse.

At age 18, he won first prize at the 14 th International Chopin Competition in Warsaw, Poland, and the following year launched a spate of CD recordings with ...
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Chopin in the Blogosphere

I'm not a big fan... of Chopin
By Nick(Nick)

Blogging violist from Boise State is not impressed by Chopin's creations...

I went to see a fantastic doctoral recital (by some Arizona Post-Grad, BSU doesn't have a Doc program) programmed entirely of Chopin works. I was slightly apprehensive, as I've never taken a deep liking to Chopin, but I went anyway, ...
- http://bsuviolist.blogspot.com/

Evolution of Classical Music - Bach to Chopin
By katyzzz(katyzzz)

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click here for the link to this video.
katyzzzplace.com - http://katyzzzplace.blogspot.com/