Customer Reviews

Chopin: Etudes Ballads & Waltzes

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How thrilling to see these performances FINALLY arrive on CD. Our poor old vinyl copy of the Etudes has been worn paper thin. I can still recall the first time my partner played it for me -- my jaw literally dropped. Performances of astonishing technical virtuosity and brilliant clarity, always in the service of the music itself. You'll hear inner voices in these performances I doubt you've ever heard before. Anievas makes this music speak in a way no other performance I've ever heard has. It's criminal that he's not better known. I can't imagine a better gift to yourself or anyone else who loves this music.

I stumbled across these disks in my ongoing Amazon.com search for versions of the Chopin waltzes to add to my fairly large collection. I am embarrassed to say that I had known nothing of Agustin Anievas before reading the liner notes that accompany these recordings, but I shall be on the lookout for his name from now on. His interpretations of the waltzes sound relaxed and are certainly realxing. Unlike many other pianists, Anievas seems largely intent upon mining the melodious rather than upon showcasing his own technical abilities -- not only in the waltzes (19 of them rather than the traditional 14) but in the etudes and ballades as well. Particularly impressive is his ability somehow to produce powerful fortes and even fortissimos without banging on the keys. The quality of his sound as reproduced here undoubtedly owes much to engineers and producers of EMI. Anievas obviously loves the music, and he manages to render it more lovable than ever to this Chopinophile. The abundance provided on this 2CD set makes the price a real bargain.

To many piano afficianados, Agustin Anievas' performances of the daunting Chopin Etudes have long been considered among the most accomplished among those of the great artists of our times who have recorded them. Anievas achieves not only technical mastery (he first performed the Etudes at the age of 10!), but succeeds in demonstrating that these works challenge not only the performer's technique, but his interpretative range.

Finally, they have appeared on CD, a bargain in itself. But to find the Ballades and Waltzes added to the package makes this one of the best buys of the year, not only musically but economically as well.

I rate it among the prize piano albums in my collection.

Agustin Anievas has created a legacy of exquisite interpretations of the Romantic masters that will live forever. His interpretations of the piano music of Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Liszt, Schubert and Brahms should be part of the collection of every lover of the masterworks for the piano. The collection of etudes, Ballades and Waltzes of Chopin contained on this disc is one of the best buys imaginable.

I love Chopin and I'm fussy about the artist who performs. I ordered Chopin: Etudes, Ballades, Waltzes and was not disappointed. That's the first GOOD.

The second is the seller: Polar Bear. The two disks arrived with disk problems. (Replicating CDs can sometimes produce a faulty disk.) I contacted the seller in England which promptly sent me a replacement disk. That's the second GOOD.

The insert of this 2CD set quotes from Gramophone, "The tone is unfailingly pleasing for its very delicate kind of brilliance and its artistic finesse." It nicely sumerises Anievas' magically poetic and graceful accounts of Chopin Etudes, played with special insight and self-effacing commitment to music itself. Everything he does is motivated musically and artistically, he never indulges in virtuoso display for its own sake. Also impressive is the way he brings out left hand part of the music distinctly.

Pollini's mechanically perfect lifeless recording and Ashkenazy's textbook rendition of Etudes has long left my shelves but this one still remains next to Gavrilov's dare-devil version.