The Chopin Currency - Mar 10, 2008

Chopin News, Reviews, and Previews:

National Ballet's versatility shines in triumphant trio
Globe and Mail - Canada

RAVE review for National Ballet of Canada program that leads off with post-modern interpretation of the Chopin Preludes, courtesy of Quebecois choreographer Marie Chouinard:

"From the get-go, Chouinard announces that hers is not a traditional interpretation of, dare I say, Chopin schlock.

Chouinard makes us listen to this well known music played by the excellent Jean-François Latour, with new ears, while lighting designer Axel Morgenthaler has ensured that the audience focuses on hands, feet or whichever part of the body Chouinard has put into play. Moments are wonderfully droll such as a particularly angst-filled prelude accompanied by a soccer ball and a pick-up game. As the piece progresses, bodies distort while limbs are angled in the most peculiar way, but always tied to the music, as if Chopin wrote disco.

The iconoclast Chouinard has deconstructed Chopin's quintessential romantic music to create quirky dances that reflect mood, emotion and beat, ...
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The National Ballet says ta-ta to tutus
Toronto Star - Ontario, Canada

Thumbs-Up, too, from the Toronto Star:

Exposing as much of their perfectly sculpted bodies as could be decently exposed, 17 dancers performed an enlarged version of Marie Chouinard's 24 Preludes by Chopin. Enlarged, that is, by seven dancers, heightening the dynamics of a kaleidoscope of choreographic invention. The company looked about as far from white tights and tutus as it ever has.

Chouinard's work is full of audacity and surprises – all the better to sharpen the National Ballet's cutting edge.

It is not the songs of the Rolling Stones but 24 Preludes by Frédéric Chopin that give the National Ballet of Canada a fresh, edgy look in the mixed program ...
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Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Minor; Polonaise in A-flat Major; Artur Rubinstein, piano/Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra/witold Rowicki
Audiophile Audition - USA

Glowing review of a new reissue on the Altara label of a legendary Rubistein recording dating from 1960, at the Chopin Competition in Warsaw that marked the 150th anniversary of the composer's birth.

Chopin’s liquid lines, proceeding by way of lithe ornaments, achieve any number of noble gestures. The middle section is all shimmering melodrama, the nervously palpitating strings supporting arioso and declamatory runs from Rubinstein’s fleet fingers. The last movement’s mazurka-laden Rondo has Rubinstein applying bold strokes, consummate acrobatics in rhythm and dynamic nuance, the Warsaw Philharmonic in splendid, shared leaps and somersaults.

The immediacy of Rubinstein’s playing in the opening Chopin Concerto is its utter spontaneity and poetic breadth. At 73, Rubinstein had learned to enjoy ...
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Chopin in the Blogosphere:

Lennox Berkeley: Mazurka Op.101b
By John France(John France)

From the Land of Lost Content ("Musings on British Classical Music,") a discovery of a Chopin-inspired Mazurka from compsoer Lennox Berkeley (pronounced "BARK-lee" in YankSpeak):

However Berkeley had already nodded to Chopin with a set of Three Mazurkas written in 1949 to celebrate the Chopin death centenary. And of course Chopin was an influence on much of Berkeley’s more ‘advanced’ piano music too. ...
The Land of Lost Content - http://landofllostcontent.blogspot.com/

Chopin Downloads of Dubious Legality

Hans Wurman - 1970 - Chopin a la Moog
By stigma2(stigma2)

Noted without comment....

51,54 MB.
stigma rest room - http://stigmarestroom.blogspot.com/

The Chopin Currency - March 6, 2008

Chopin News, Reviews, and Previews:

Live: Yundi Li

The budding Chinese superstar plays Orange County, but leaves the LA Times reviewer cold: "A set of four Chopin mazurkas, Nos. 22 through 25, played without break, showed little elasticity in phrasing, rhythmic rubato or architectural contrast. Again, slower pieces such as the C-major Mazurka (No. 24) or Chopin's Nocturne in E flat, which followed the set, revealed a far more interesting poet of the keyboard..."

Los Angeles Times - CA,USA
But almost everything on the program, be it Mozart, Chopin, Schumann or Mussorgsky, turned out to be mainly a vehicle for keyboard-slamming, ...
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Pianist Yundi Li makes it quick in Costa Mesa

Yes, he's a young pianist in a hurry, ripostes the OC Register, but that's not necessarily a bad thing: "Li, the youngest winner of the International Chopin Piano Competition, is an astonishing pianist. Tuesday, he revealed the chops of a true virtuoso and the brains of an intellectual. There seemed little that escaped his notice in pieces by Mozart, Chopin, Schumann and Mussorgsky. But he never gilded the lily. Unlike Lang Lang, he showed himself to be remarkably free from virtuoso mannerisms, too, both physically and musically. If he was in a rush, he also took care of business along the way.

"So, too, in the Mazurkas, Op. 33, and the Nocturne, Op. 9, No. 2, did clarity of texture rule the day. He made phrases cogent and harmonic shifts logical rather than mystical. Everything made sense, beautifully. You may have wanted him to stop occasionally and smell the roses, but he actually managed to do that in transit. A listener had to keep pace.

"In Schumann's "Widmung" (as arranged by Liszt) and Chopin's Andante Spianato and Grande Polonaise he gave the first indications of his roaring abilities, but he remained crisp, never vulgar."

OCRegister - Santa Ana,CA,USA
Even Chopin nocturnes. Even slow movements. Even rests. Too fast? Maybe, maybe not. In classical music, we often tend to want our performers to sound old ...
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Child prodigy to perform at Stanley Hotel

9-year old Helen Nebeker to play at the Estes Park Music Festival Winter Series on March 9, and Chopin is on the program...

Estes Park Trail Gazette - Estes Park,CO,USA
Some of Nebeker’s awards since she began competing a few years ago at the age of five have included First Place wins at: the International Chopin ...
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LETTER FROM POLAND: Chopin The Warsaw Boy

A hometown perspective on Chopin's early years, courtesy of Polish Radio:

"Poland has always had a bit of a problem with the fact that the majority of the world thinks that Chopin was French. Many people don’t realise that the world’s greatest pianist was a Pole (a Varsovian, to be precise), which is crucial to understanding his work. It is here, in and around the Old town of Warsaw, that the musical genius grew up, went to school, composed his first pieces, gave his first concerts and soaked up his first inspirations."

Polish Radio External Service - Poland
We take a look at the little-known facts about Chopin in his early years. The 1st March marked the 198th birthday of probably the most famous Pole in the ...
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Rooster Struts Opens March With Preludes By Chopin And Soldiers' Mass

Toronto-based National Ballet of Canada puts Chopin on the program with the Rolling Stones and Bohuslav Martinu..."

Renowned Quebec choreographer Marie Chouinard makes her debut with The National Ballet of Canada with her celebrated 1999 work 24 Preludes by Chopin. Ms. Chouinard is one of contemporary dance's most exciting internationally acclaimed artists, renowned for her passionate, groundbreaking choreography.

Set to Frederic Chopin's famous piano Preludes, this short work reflects the structure of the Preludes themselves, evoking such emotions as chastity, passion, introspection, ardour and rebellion, all articulated in Ms. Chouinard's strikingly contemporary dance style."

HULIQ - Hickory,NC,USA
Renowned Quebec choreographer Marie Chouinard makes her debut with The National Ballet of Canada with her celebrated 1999 work 24 Preludes by Chopin. ...
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What can a non-musician learn from a master class in piano?

University of Minnesota piano professor Alexander Braginsky leads a master class in Minnesota; a non-playing columnist learns some important lesssons....

Twin Cities Planet - Minneapolis,Minnesota,USA
He asked; “What emotion do you feel this Chopin Nocturne is communicating? “ For half an hour they went back and forth on their pianos, searching for the ...
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