Customer Reviews

Cecile Licad Performs Chopin

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a wonderful record of Licad's early reading of Chopin, particularly the Op 10 etudes. She plays these etudes quite differently these days and in my opinion, more mature interpretation, but just the same, this CD captures her music as a younger pianist. I hope she records these etudes again, perhaps along with the Op 25, to give us a glimpse of her maturity as an artist.

I have listened to these pieces by numerous performers. Barenboim was always one of my favorites, but reading that Licad was boring just seemed not right. After listening to this CD I actually looked for more CDs by her! Her passion is just inspirational. I really can not find a moment in this CD that would make background music. I was on full attention throughout.

I've listened to many Chopin recordings, LP and CD and I would definitely include this on my Desert Island. There is nothing sentimental to convey unless it's already there in the music of Chopin. Cecile Licad shows and exemplifies Chopin with fulsome grace and humility personified without any outward technical pyrotechnics to draw attention away from the music. It's so wonderful to hear a pianist who is able to communicate. This in itself is a challenge most pianists are not adept (in Chopin), to be musical without drawing attention to the technical. She simply let's it flow and sing. Lastly there are no technical hurtles to overcome. Cecile simply does the music and it's overwhelming in it's naturalness and yet so grandly expliciit in the message conveyed. Don't listen to critics and their reviews (drivel)about techical shortcomings. It's all hogwash!! This is a glorious, joyous and lovely CD.

Considering the hyper-competitive realm this recording inhabits, there's really no need to buy it. These are very workman (workwoman?)-like readings of works that have been recorded more times than the Rolling Stones have done a farewell tour. The performances are all very average, with an undramatic, under-conceived reading of the First Ballade, a pleasant, pleasantly-understated Nocturne, and a set of Op 10 Études that has a few nice moments (No. 7 in C) but also some huge dramatic disappointments (No. 2, No. 9 for starters...). Often, such as in the first Étude, she sounds labored, and in the second she fails to achieve that comic effect that made this piece a silent movie house favorite back in the day (really!). You could do worse (Perahia, Zayas, Pollini) but you can also do much better (Richter, Ignaz Friedman, Vladimir Sofronitsky and Shura Cherkassky in the ones they recorded, Lugansky, Yokoyama, Cortot, Wirsaladze for complete sets). I was so bored that I never bothered with the Scherzo. I doubt she's erase my memory of Pogorelich here. If you want a far better Ballade and would like it performed by a woman and an unfairly obscure one at that, choose Wendy Chen over this, and you get the other three Ballades, plus some Chopin that is rarely if ever recorded, as a bonus. Why isn't Ms. Chen better-known?

Piano sound on this release is good and up-front, but Licad plays without color or subtle gradation of tone or much rubato or other expressive devices. Not particularly recommended given the number of great CDs of Chopin floating around Amazon.