Customer Reviews

Chopin: 4 Scherzi/Berceuse/Barcarolle

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

 

 

There's an urban legend about Pollini, surely created by people who never heard him play, that he's "cold", "mechanical" etc. Nothing can be more wrong. Pollini is a pianist that his utmost concern is to convey what the composer had in mind as faithfully as possible, and he's humble enough and capable enough to do so as much as it is humanly possible. The articulation and phrasing are subtle, in many cases, but they are there, and very much so. One doesn't have to be a professional musician to realize how much joy and deep understanding of the music there is in his recordings, right from the very early ones. e.g. the Chopin 1st piano concerto that he recorded at the age of 18 (!), right after winning first prize at the Chopin competition in Warsaw (to my humble opinion - the best recording of this work). The works on this CD present a wide range of Chopin's compositional style - from the wonderfully energetic and direct first scherzo, to the elusive and almost impressionistic fourth scherzo, the beautiful berceuse, which unfolds a theme with variations that feels like a chinese landscape scroll and the monumental barcarolle. Pollini has the acuity of mind/ear/hands to match his interpretation to each and every one of the pieces. On a personal level of preference - the second scherzo gets a better treatment, I believe, from Pollini's compatriot, the late Benedetti-Michelangeli, but Pollini's performance is still a great one, and the rest of the CD is simply perfect.

This CD dates from 1990, and I'm sure that Amazon must have swallowed up my original review (no worries, I have a few to spare). Although acknowledged for forty years as one of the world's most eminent Chopin interpreters, Pollini outdoes himself here. He plays the four Scherzi with passion and power while maintaining his impeccable precision. Among the recordings I know, only Pogorelich, with his extreme volatility, is more immediately engrossing. As for the stale cliche that Pollini's playing is cold, I think the Gramophone's reviewer states the truth very elegantly: "Pollini never for a moment allows us to forget Chopin's own profound respect for classical discipline--or should I say aristocratic poise?"

It irritates me when reviewers warp the facts to suit their private prejudices. The three-star reviewer says that DG's sound is boxy and harsh when in fact the ambience is quite normal and the miking no more close than for most pianists. However, it's true that DG tended to give Pollini rather glassy and hard-edged sonics. Those qualities can be heard on this CD when the pianist plays at forte or louder.

In any event, this account of the four Scherzi stands as a modern classic, and I haven't heard it surpassed in the twenty years since it was made.

In my humble opinion, no living pianist plays Chopin better than Pollini. he is muscular, sensitive, his technique is impeccable and he sees the very heart of this wonderful music. Highly highly recommended.

If you've never bought any Pollini recordings before, this is a good one to start with. The performances are so totally perfected -- beautifully expressive, subtle and refined. The Berceuse and Barcarolle are among the most beautiful classical recordings I have ever heard. If you like this one, try the Beethoven Concertos collection that includes the "Choral Fantasy," or the Beethoven Sonatas collection containing "The Tempest," "Walstein," and "Les Adieux." Pollini is truly a modern day master.

As a piano Examiner and long-time teacher this is an excellent CD for students to hear Pollini's technical brilliance. However the performances are somewhat angular and lack true refinement and understanding of the intense Romanticism of these works. That said, this should be in your collection if you are a true student of Chopin.

I seldom, if ever, get enthusiastic about Pollini's Chopin playing. On an absolute scale, so is the case also with this disc; however, on a relative Pollini/Chopin scale, this is probably as high as we're likely to get. Hadn't it been for the inclusion of the Berceuse and the Barcarolle, I would probably have clicked the four-star icon.

So, why does Pollini sound so unusually at home in the Scherzos? My guess is that it has to do with the outwardly virtuosic character of the writing. But that's only half the explanation, since the Etudes are at least as virtuosic without sounding nearly as natural in Pollini's hands. I believe the other half is all about the infamous Pollinian coldness. Even though most of Chopin's music is very lush and colourful, the outer sections of the Scherzos (the First in particular) have a certain chilliness about them, which fits Pollini's pianism like a glove. The main problem, as can be expected, surfaces in the calm and warm central sections, where Pollini yields amply in tonal blossom and tenderness to the likes of Pogorelich and Pletnev.

Of course, this generalised description fits the Fourth Scherzo less well than the other three, which is also why it's the least natural-sounding of Pollini's readings. Indeed, this is also why Pollini's Berceuse and Barcarolle are miles away from the ocean of beauty and delicacy Ohlsson carves out of these most subtle of all Chopin scores. However, those who warm to more digitalised renditions of Chopin's music are likely to be fully satisfied; Pollini's technique is as crystalline as ever--in fact greatly superior to what Richter displays in his much overestimated 1977 remake of the four Scherzos. Having said that, Pogorelich is still in a class of his own.

'Digitalised' is probably the nicest characterisation of DG's sound from 1991; harsh and airless would be other more candid, and accurate, descriptions.

TIMINGS: Scherzos--9:27, 9:52, 7:25, 10:36; Berceuse--4:23; Barcarolle--8:31

REFERENCES: Scherzos--Pogorelich; Berceuse, Barcarolle--Ohlsson

Well, if this recording is any evidence, it's no urban legend. Pollini's rendering of the scherzi is percussive, uningratiating, coldly brilliant, and as dry a performance of Chopin as I could imagine. I don't get it. Maybe you gotta be under 50 to be a Pollini fan. There are surely better CD's of this music around...Rubinstein, to be sure. Not that I don't respect Pollini...his Schoenberg is another story entirely.