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 - March 12, 2008

Chopin News, Reviews, and Previews:

Method & madness: The oddities of the virtuosi
Independent - London,England,UK

This just in: A lot of great pianists of the ages have been more than a little crackers. A dissection on the eccentricities and downright madness of Shura Cherkassy, Glenn Gould, Artur Benedetto Michalangeli, Vladimir Horowitz, and a host of lesser knows, including...

Some pianists based brilliant careers on seeming mad, when they weren't, the most notable being the diminutive Viennese "pianissimist" Vladimir de Pachmann, aka "the Chopinzee", whose antics prompted George Bernard Shaw to write of his "pantomimic performance, with accompaniments by Chopin"

Yet his Chopin and Schumann had such panache that dozens of live recordings have been issued since his death. I regret never having heard Arturo Benedetti ...
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Nanowires prefer Deep Purple
ABC Science Online - Australia'

In the brand-new world of silicon nanowires, Chopin lags behind Deep Purple in promoting their growth - though it seems there are "kinks" to work out....

Parlevliet tested the effect of Deep Purple's 'Smoke on the Water', Chopin's 'Nocturne Opus 9 No 1', Josh Abrahams' 'Addicted to Bass', Rammstein's 'Das ...
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WEST SIDE STORY SUITE – Standing Ovation for San Francisco Ballet ...
SanFranciscoSentinel.com - San Francisco,CA,USA

Account of San Francisco Ballet program currently in production that includes Jerome Robbins' "In the Night," danced to a recording of three Chopin Nocturnes by Artur Rubinstein...(Opus 9 No. 2, Opus 27 No. 1, Opus 55, No. 1 and No. 2.)

The evening includes three separate works featuring the music of Leonard Bernstein and Frédéric Chopin. 2008 marks the 90th birthdays of Bernstein and ...
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"Her Name Is Sabine,"
IFC - USA

Review of new indy film by French actress Sandrine Bonnaire "making a patient, respectful, thoroughly unnarcissistic documentary about her own handicapped sister, and stumping for policy change as she considers painful mysteries about family and the passage of time in the process. "Her Name Is Sabine" (2007) is a simple, unpretentious piece of work..."

... teen and young adult, she was different, "off," but lucid, literate, energetic and capable of playing Chopin. She went without diagnosis for decades. ...
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The Chopin Currency - Feb. 23, 2008

Chopin News, Reviews, and Previews:

Vienna calling

A unique mixture in Manila: old Vienna with indigenous Filipino culture. The Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra, led by guest Austrian conductor Ernest Hoetz, performs a traditional Vienna New Year's Day Concert on Feb. 25th, featuring Rudolf Golez, winner of the Chopin Competition held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia as soloist. "Notably, the concert also aims to promote and advance the indigenous cultures Pala’wan and Tagbanwa. GeoChris Foundations Inc., which aims to promote the dignity of and sustain indigenous cultures with a goal to make them self-reliant communities guided by values of sustainable development, will accept the proceeds of the concert in their behalf."

Manila Standard Today - Philippines
“Rudolf is a great, great musician whose intimate knowledge of the works of Chopin, Strauss, Beethoven and Mozart, will surely excite many who will ...
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The Russian Piano Tradition: Yakov Flier = CHOPIN: Piano Sonata No 2 ...

Mostly positive review of a CD reissue featuring little-known (in America, at least) Soviet-era virtuoso Yakov Flier, known for his tremendous dynamic range: "...The middle section of Chopin’s eponymous Funeral March (rec. 1956) reveals an equally poignant pianissimo from Flier, given the rather tinny quality of his instrument [or perhaps those recording engineers' lack of skill...Ed.]. When the march resumes, we are only a few chords away from Moussorgsky’s Bydlo section from Pictures at an Exhibition...."

The Russian Piano Tradition: Yakov Flier = CHOPIN: Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat Minor, Op. 35 “Funeral March’; RACHMANINOV: Prelude in C-sharp Minor, Op. 3, No. 2; Prelude in G Minor, Op. 23, No. 5; KABALEVSKY: 24 Preludes, Op. ...
Audiophile Audition Headlines - http://www.audaud.com

Chopin in the Vidblogosphere:

My favorite piece by Chopin

A mostly-music blogger in Florida shares a YouTube (audio only) posting of a classic Horowitz recording of the "Raindrop" (Op. 28 No. 15) Prelude....
I have posted or blasted this piece before. This is one that my mother played so beautifully. I sense her presence whenever I hear it. She loved the way Horowitz played Chopin.
RANDOM RAMBLINGS - http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-7XjHoB48fqrJbbAKSqgXLQk-?cq=1

The Chopin Currency: Jan. 31, 1008

Chopin in the News:

Poland to Broadway
Worcester News - Worcester News, UK
In the first section Chopin was shown as a composer of songs in particular, which Wendy sang in excellent Polish. Narzeczony was a strongly accentuated ...
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Chopin in the Blogosphere:

Horowitz Town Hall Recital of May 19, 1947: Chopin and Liszt
Seeders: 1 - Leechers: 0.
SUMOTorrent.com RSS Feed - http://www.sumotorrent.com

Classical: Chopin Opus 23. in G minor by ckrohm
Another all time great of Chopin. I didn't use any compressor on this as I wanted to keep everything as authentic as possible. So be careful, the dynamics are quite something for your speakers. The reverb comes from the Logic's Space ...
iCompositions Music - http://www.icompositions.com/music

La Corda d'Oro * (The Best Anime)
Tsuchiura: Frédéric Chopin - Revolutionary. - Fuyuumi: Robert Schumann - Three Romances No.2. Music Played On The Final Selection. - Hino: Franz Schubert - Ave Maria. - Tsukimori: Niccolò Paganini - Caprice No.24. ...
All - http://bestuff.com/tag/all