Customer Reviews

Chopin: 24 Preludes

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Grigory Sokolov is a pianist who just recently ventured onto my radar screen with his DVD of a recital from Paris (see my and others' reviews of it here at Amazon: Grigory Sokolov - Live in Paris). He's been around a long time -- he won the Tchaikovsky Competition almost forty years or so ago when he was only 16 -- but has remained poorly known, in the US at least, by carving an unusual career path for himself; in these days when a career is boosted most often by blockbuster recordings, he has recorded little and almost all of those recordings, and certainly all of them recently, have been of LIVE performances. That's the case here, as well, in this set of the Chopin Préludes from a 1999 recital. He's a deeply thoughtful and serious rather than commercially driven artist, apparently.

The Préludes tend to get short shrift from concert pianists, a few of them appearing now and again as encores. But for my money they are better music than the much more commonly performed Études. They are the heart and soul of Chopin's pianistic poetry, condensed, most of them, into only a couple of pages. Yet they cover the world in their expressivity. Most of them are not beyond the technique of moderately advanced pianists, but the expression required must come from the soul. And that, aside from technical near-perfection (this is 'live,' after all), is what we get from Sokolov. In some ways he is a throwback in that he plays with what some would call waywardness at times. By that is meant that he varies tempi, phrasing, dynamics from what is usual in order to express something deeply felt. For instance, in the very first Prélude in C Major, usually played like the wind by others, Sokolov plays dreamily, and with rich, warm tone. (By the way, it is said that Sokolov spends hours with the piano he will be playing on, often more or less taking it apart physically, tuning and voicing it himself. If that be the case, he is also a world-class piano technician by the sound of the piano on his recording.) And lest one think Sokolov can't play like the wind, listen to No. 3, in G Major: such pianissimo, such lightness and accuracy, and yet such phrasing as few are capable of. And then this is followed immediately by one of the most soulful readings of the No. 4 in E Minor, slower than most play it and almost weeping in its melancholy. (I will confess that I shed a few tears on hearing it.) The same sorts of insights and expression occur throughout this traversal of all 24 préludes. I have several special favorites, but I suspect others would pick different favorites because they contain all superb music-making. I loved the heroics of No. 22 in G Minor and No. 24 in D Minor, the intensity of the thrice-familiar No. 15 in D Flat (the trudging middle section, with its tolling bell, presages Ravel's 'Le Gibet' from 'Gaspard de la nuit'-- more terrifying than I've ever heard it), the turbulence and digital fireworks of No. 16 in B Minor (Presto con fuoco - and boy does he ever!). And so it goes.

Discovering Sokolov, whose quiet demeanor onstage belies his soulful and fiery artistic temperament, is one of my major discoveries of this past year. I intend to pursue finding everything of his I can find, and will pray that he will some day play near me so I can see/hear him in person.

Outstanding pianism, recommended heartily.

TT=41:11, a short timing but worth every penny

Scott Morrison

Another outstanding recording by Grigory Sokolov. As usual, a marvelous live performance with emotion, intensity, finesse, voluptuousness, passion, poetry, intelligence, sensitivity, spontaneity, integrity, maturity, individuality.
So different, and yet so beautiful!
When you are sick of Chopin, you will still like this CD. Forget Nelson Freire, Martha Argerich, Yukio Yokoyama, Pollini, Richter, Pletnev, Bolet, Sofronitsky, Barenboim, and all the rest.
Grigory Sokolov is the Chopin pianist.
He will move you, he will shake you with his originality, his very personal style: so pure, delicate, poignant, and yet powerful, arresting, transcendental.

Sokolov gets inside the music as few others ever have. I know of no more satisfying recording of the Chopin Preludes. Masterful array of keyboard colors and sonorities, beautifully recorded. The performances are lyrical, passionnate, spontaneous, and full of integrity. Buy this one today.

This has to be the most obsessive, morose, and among the slowest accounts of the Preludes ever put on disc. It is simply a gut-wrenching and fascinating performance of these great little pieces.This should be in every Chopin lover's collection.

Michael Kimmelman, art critic for the New York Times went to Paris just to hear Sokolov. He had heard the recording fo the 24 Chopin Preludes and felt that he had to hear him live. It was on this basis of Kimmelman's article that I bought the CD. I was overwhelmed by the musicality of Sokolov's performce. I have since circulated my CD to several friens whose rection is the same as mine. On the basis of this CD, I am determined to add all of his recored performances, including a DVD, to my collection

This set of Chopin's Op 28 ranks among the best performances of these pieces that this reviewer has ever heard. It, along with Argerich's recording of this opus, is a standard of piano playing that hasn't really been heard since the performances of the greats of the early 20th century.

All I can say is...outstanding!! Simply THE best CD for the Chopin Preludes.

Sokolov gives very unique and highly individualistic account of Chopin's 24 Preludes, capturing incomparable depth and intricacy of each Prelude. He can not match warmth of Rubinstein or deep humanity of Richter, but this is still outstanding performance among the best, like Pogorelich, Barenboim, Anievas ...

This has to be one of my favorite cd's in ages. I listen over and over, and it is never quite the same, as one finds more and more to enjoy.