The Chopin Currency - May 2, 2008

Chopin News, Reviews, and Previews:

From Georgia with love
Jerusalem Post - Israel

Georgian Pianist Alexander Korsantia prepares to play a concert with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, whose home venue of Henry Crown Hall just happens to be located on 5 Chopin Street...

I perceive Israel as my country," says pianist Alexander Korsantia, who will perform Chopin's Second Concerto together with the Jerusalem Symphony under Leon Botstein in a special concert celebrating Israel's 60th Independence day and 70 years since the orchestra's founding. "13 years ago Israel embraced me. Since then our relationship only strengthens and I try never to let down the local audience," the pianist adds. Korsantia's career received a significant international push after he won first prize at the Arthur Rubinstein Piano Competition in 1995.

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High praise for Chekhov at Hycroft
Vancouver Courier - BC, Canada

A rare Vancouver twin-bill of one-act plays by the Russian playwright reveals a heretofore hidden Chopin talent:

After the show, back home, I went scurrying to my Chopin CDs--Chopin because not only did actor Olesia Shewchuk completely steal my heart with her Natalia Stepanovna (in The Proposal) and Elena Ivanovna Popova (in The Bear), but she plays Chopin's Fantasie Impromptu on the Hycroft grand piano as part of the show. Multi-talented, she also translated "The Bear" from Russian.

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GILMORE FESTIVAL HIGH NOTES
Kalamazoo Gazette - MLive.com - Kalamazoo,MI,USA

From the behind-the-scenes blog at the Gilmore Festival in Kalamazoo, MI:

Rafal Blechacz CD wins rave

Rafal Blechacz, who performed Sunday at Western Michigan University's Dalton Center Recital Hall, is getting great press on his new CD, ``Chopin: The Complete Preludes'' (Deutsche Grammophon).

``Rafal Blechacz looks on his CD cover like he can't be older than 14 (he's 22),'' wrote Arizona Republic music critic Richard Nilsen in an April 6 review. ``But his new recording of Chopin's Preludes -- and a couple of Nocturnes to fill out the disc -- has to be one of the best debut albums since Glenn Gould's Goldbergs. It's that good.

``New young pianists pop out of the woodwork almost daily. Some have a great PR campaign behind them; others burst briefly from the many piano competitions before disappearing in the grind of concert tours with every second-rate orchestra in the world. Blechacz is different: He actually has something to say, and a personality that infuses his playing. ... This is truly refreshing pianism.''

-- James Sanford,

Kalamazoo Gazette

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Chopin in the Blogosphere:

15 Questions to Freddy Kempf Can you tell who Freddy Kempf is by ...
By pianoplayer0123(pianoplayer0123)

From the "Solo Pianist" blogsite, an online Q & A with classical music's "Man in Black"...

I am at home, in London, – in my wife’s “office” as we have a good friend of ours staying in my room! I am feeling heart-broken and depressed because I have just spent the whole afternoon practising Chopin’s 2nd piano concerto – it is such a wonderful feeling! I also feel great as I went to the gym today and ran my usual 3km in record time – 9 mins. in fact... well just kidding but one day I’ll get it down to 9 minutes... Some day...

What’s on your schedule right now?
On my schedule? Well tomorrow I fly to Sweden to do Chopin 2nd with a really great conductor friend of mine. I’m really looking forward to it as we always seem to make such good music together as well as having such fun. He sent me an SMS today saying, “Hi Freddy. When you arrive? Dinner? Weather is rubbish orchestra is great."

Solo Pianist - http://lyudmilachudinova.blogspot.com/

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The Chopin Currency - March 27, 2008

Chopin News, Reviews, and Previews:

Rubinstein Piano Competition / The heat that shuffled the deck
Ha'aretz - Tel Aviv,Israel

Bravos for the competitors, brickbats for the orchestra, in the latest dispatch from Tel Aviv:

Contestant Irina Zahharenkova, for instance, chose Chopin's Concerto No. 2. Based on her interpretation of the slow movement of Mozart's Concerto no. 23, a tender and unconventionally expressive performance which attempted to transcended plain technique, her interpretation of Chopin is likely to be more skillful and interesting.

[...]

The one participant that no one feels like hearing at this stage any more, is conductor Uri Segal and the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra. Listening to Segal lead the solos was a nerve wracking experience as it sounded as if the musicians were walking on thin ice: Will they fall due to the incorrect balance? Can they get passed the missed entries, unstable tempo and lack of rhythm?

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Ferdinand Hiller: Piano Concertos Nos. 1, 2 & 3
Musical Criticism - London,UK

Review of a new CD of piano concertos by Chopin contemporary Ferdinand Hiller, featuring pianist Howard Shelley and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra:

Once again, Hyperion uncovers the work of yet anther 'unknown' composer who possessed deep ties with the great and the good of nineteenth-century music. Indeed, a highly curtailed biography of Ferdinand Hiller (1811-1885) proves to be nothing more than a gross exercise in name-dropping: pupil of Hummel, protégé of Cherubini, acquaintance of Rossini and Berlioz, friend of Liszt and Chopin, deputy conductor of Mendelssohn's Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and composition teacher of Max Bruch (amongst others). He was a vaunted pianist in an age of burgeoning virtuosity and a composer of great potential, though his creative legacy has now been largely forgotten.

[...]

Even the early, bravura F-minor concerto is full of deft wit and charm, its finale a magnificent and forward-looking crossbreed of waltzes by Chopin and Johann Strauss that allows Shelley to exploit his magnificent pianism to the full.
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Chopin Videos:

Chopin FTW
By djsunkid(djsunkid)

More Chopin for Math geeks....

Hey, I think I like chopin! Check out these awesome reasons why! Mostly this is just a reminder to myself to get more Chopin. Woo!
raHr! - http://djsunkid.livejournal.com/

Valentina Lisitsa Chopin 24 Etude Op. 25 No. 6
By www.japanvideogames.com(www.japanvideogames.com)

Embedded Video. This piece is soooo hard to play at that speed, if you've ever seen the notes on sheetmusicarchive.net, it's a straight killer, major SKILLS, insta-watch when DONE. Blogged with the Flock Browser.
Interesting Things For you Late @ Night - http://yayyuh.blogspot.com/

Lang Lang plays Chopin with an Orange!

Citrus-flavored performance of the "Black Keys" (Op. 10 No. 5) Etude...

The best musicians in the world have great sense of humor and tend to be pretty easy going. Here's an example.
Amore is in the Aire - http://prplppleater.multiply.com/

The Chopin Currency - March 13, 2008

Chopin News, Reviews, and Previews:

Pianist’s intense preparation and talent have brought him global ...
Schenectady Gazette - Schenectady,NY,USA

Another preview for the current recital tour of 2000 Chopin Competition winner Yundi Li, who'll play Sunday March 16th at the acoustically-rich Troy (NY) Savings Bank Music Hall. In this installment, we learn:

His role models for pianists were Maurizio Pollini of Italy and Krystian Zimerman of Poland, both of them previous winners of the Chopin competition who had gone on to major careers.

Since his incredible win at the 2000 International Chopin Competition at age 18 when he was the first competitor to take home a gold medal in 15 years and ...
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Unremarkable night salvaged by Israeli's rendition of Schubert
Ha'aretz - Tel Aviv,Israel

Meanwhile, at the Artur Rubinstein Piano Competition in Tel Aviv, the local critic is more impressed by an old film of the master in action than any of the flesh-and-blood contestants....

The second contestant, Rem Urasin of Moscow, strived to project an especially "deep" message, yet the result was boredom. The mazurkas of Chopin proved heavy and artificial, the antithesis of the Rubinstein approach, of which I was reminded while in the vestibule of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. The museum was screening footage of Rubinstein leading a class in 1979 at the "Mishkenot Sha'ananim" in Jerusalem. It is worthwhile to stop and observe the old craftsman in action, demanding "simplicity" and emphasizing articulative rendition that needed to stem from genuine, internal emotion. For him and for musicians that managed to connect with him, such comprehensive instructions contained meaning.

The mazurkas of Chopin proved heavy and artificial, the antithesis of the Rubinstein approach, of which I was reminded while in the vestibule of the Tel ...
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Konstantin Igumnov = CHOPIN: Mazurka No. 33 in B Major, Op. 56, No ...
Audiophile Audition - USA

Another reissue review:

Another in the series The Russian Piano Tradition, this installment celebrates the artistry of Konstantin Nikolayevich Igumnov (1873-1948)--Moscow Conservatory teacher of notables Jakob Flier, Lev Oborin, and Bella Davidovich--with inscriptions Igumnov made 1935-1947 in fair to moderately passable sound. ....Chopin’s B Major Mazurka, which despite the tinny sound that haunts all Soviet inscriptions, reveals a fine sense of legato and good inner pulsation.

Igumnov claimed supremacy in the romantic repertory, particularly in the music of Chopin, Schumann, Scriabin, Rachmaninov, and Tchaikovsky. ...
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Chopin in the Blogosphere:

Chord Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes
Idolator - New York,NY,USA

More about musicologist Dmitri Tyomoczko's intriguing video linking math, chords, Chopin, and spatial relationships.....and just how is it that scientists keep linking Chopin and Deep Purple?

There, he shows a Chopin chord progression represented as movement around a circle, and since a 12-point circle is a clock, it's easy to follow. ...
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CHOPIN-WALTZ

A blogger's selection of favorite Chopin waltzes on YouTube...

Sergio Fiorentino plays Chopin Waltz Op 18 (GRAND WALTZ)--LEARN http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXqfMj7xj5M Yundi Li plays Chopin Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2 --LEARN http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvxS_bJ0yOU Horowitz plays Chopin Ballade 1 ...
NONIK'S SITE - http://ininonik.multiply.com/

Loving Coq - Rooster - Ballet Review
By Vance(Vance)

A Toronto blogger weighs in on the National Ballet of Canada's "32" [sic] Preludes" - apparently too dazzled by the outfits to note that there are actually only 24 of 'em....

And then there's the first piece, 32 Preludes by Chopin that is weird and wonderful and modern and abstract and very very cool. Did I mention everyone is in tights? Tights that are transparent and only strategically covered by small ...
Tapeworthy - http://tapeworthy.blogspot.com/