The Chopin Currency - April 6, 2008

Chopin News, Reviews, and Previews:

Chopin: Piano Sonata No 3; Mazurkas Op 59; Barcarolle Op 60 ...
Telegraph.co.uk - United Kingdom

UK paper gives Gilmore Award winner Ingrid Fliter a vigorous thumbs-up on her new All-Chopin CD:

Ingrid Fliter clearly loves Chopin's music. The warmth of her playing and the lyrical impulse of her interpretations are combined with discretion in matters of dynamics, pianistic decoration and tonal colour to make these pieces flow from her fingers with the spontaneity of someone deeply immersed in the music's idiom.

Fliter's name might not yet be universally familiar here, but it will be. Born in Argentina, she came to prominence two years ago when she received the highly prized Gilmore Award in the United States, previously bestowed on such international artists as Piotr Anderszewski and Leif Ove Andsnes. Now that she is also a BBC New Generation Artist, opportunities to hear her will become more frequent.

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Mindru Katz plays CHOPIN, Vol. I
Audiophile Audition - USA

Review of a revissue by the Israeli pianist that Audiophile Audition calls "A highly personal approach to the composer - less of Horowitz than of [Myeczyeslaw] Horszowski or [Benno] Moiseiwitsch, a combination of implosive technique and fervent devotion." As well as some fevered dreams....

Katz verbally recounts his experience with dreams, especially in relationship to the music of Chopin, “the genius of Chopin and not just the notes of Chopin.” The etude in double-thirds proved troubling to Katz: a dream involving Artur Rubinstein transpired, in which Rubinstein placed Katz’s hand on the keyboard to finger the etude. Somehow, in having practiced and performed the Tchaikovsky Concerto, Katz found the proper fingering for rendering the technique of the Chopin etude. In another dream, one involving a near-death experience, Katz discovered the proper touch and realization for the Funeral March Sonata.....Well-spoken, articulate, and poetically apt, Katz as raconteur and insightful artist makes a formidable combination well worth our undivided attentions.
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Chopin Foundation returns to Barboursville
Orange County Review - Orange,VA,USA

Young Chopin Competition winner to appear at an Orange County vinyard...

The Chopin Foundation of the United States and Premier Virginia Properties are proud to present Jacek Kortus of Poland, the youngest finalist of the 2005 International Chopin Piano Competition, on his world piano tour.

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The Chopin Currency - March 29, 2008

Chopin News, Reviews, and Previews:

Horszowski: CASALS: Prelude; CHOPIN: Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor; Mazurka in B-flat Minor...
Audiophile Audition - USA

Review of a CD compendium of two recitals (in 1984 and 1987) given by the venerable Polish pianist at the Aldeburgh Festival:

If ever a musician could be “venerated,” it would have to be Mieczyslaw Horszowski (1892-1993), the Polish virtuoso who excelled as solo pianist, teacher, and accompanist, and whose “staying power“ at his chosen instrument lasted 80 years. A pupil of Theodor Leschetizky, Horszowski mastered every degree of nuanced keyboard playing without percussiveness, and the entire Slavic-German repertory lay under his command. [...]

Horszowski opens with an homage to his dear friend, Pablo Casals - an extensive Prelude that plays like a nocturne, dramatic in parts with touches of what sound like Rachmaninov’s famed C-sharp Minor effort. Horszowski takes a broad tempo for the first movement of the Chopin B Minor, allowing Chopin’s modal counterpoint to shine through as well as the second subject to bask in burnished space. The development becomes thick without succumbing to metrical sag or emotional pretentiousness. Horszowski has a few finger slips in the gnarly Scherzo, which he takes rather gingerly. Despite the flaws, the music enjoys the contours of a water-piece, Debussy not far away. The third movement Largo seeks a balance of nocturne and barcarolle, in which Horszowski imbues the repeated arpeggios and colored chords with timeless, singing reverie. Herculean efforts move the Presto movement forward, Horszowski’s attacking the galloping figures with the audacity of one two generations younger than he. At the last chord, the audience whoops its appreciation for the gallant efforts.

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'Chaos' comes to Beirut for the first time
Daily Star - Lebanon - Beirut,Lebanon

Review of a Beirut recital by Lebanese composer-pianist Rami Khalifé:

Khalifé began Wednesday's concert with a selection of Chopin "Etudes." Presumably he wanted to shake off the nerves and warm up his hands. Having the contemporary centerpiece prefaced by the work of one of the best-loved composers of the romantic period also satisfied those especially fond of a better established repertoire - indeed, the audience erupted with applause after each etude.

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For piano lovers in Madison, this is a week to savor
The Capital Times - Madison,WI,USA

Emanuel Ax comes to the Wisconsin capital, Chopin in tow....

It starts with three performances by the Madison Symphony Orchestra with Emanuel Ax soloing in Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Minor. (Actually it was Chopin's first concerto, but was published second.) The first might be more virtuosic and sophisticated in its composition, but the second has tender beauty to behold, nowhere more so than in the opening of the slow second movement, a love song by the 20-year-old composer.

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