Customer Reviews

Chopin: Nocturnes

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Of the lovely, perfumed--and profound--Chopin nocturnes there are by now more than a dozen excellent, seamless, sensitive, well-recorded performances. Only one of them, however, qualifies as transcendental. Ivan Moravec treats each precious jewel as if it were Chopin's final statement to the world, or the last piece of music ever to be played. Every note, every shading, every nuance is endowed with ultimate significance. If God commanded me to justify man's existence, I think I'd hand Him these two CDs. When I heard the Connoisseur Society LPs in the sixties, I was stunned. I felt that the music, familiar as it was, was being fully revealed for the first time. I awaited the CDs eagerly and now own several sealed copies, just so I know I'll never be without them. Uncountable listenings have not dimmed the glory of this "desert island" recording. Lipatti, Friedman, and Cortot had deep insight into these masterpieces and gave superb performances of individual nocturnes, but no other set matches Moravec's. I do listen to other pianists--Arrau, Wehr--when I want to enjoy the beauty of the Chopin nocturnes but feel unable to handle the full emotional jolt from Ivan Moravec. The recorded sound is superb by any standards.

Now please, the SACD. I'll pay ANY price!

Like most listeners, I ordinarily find Rubinstein the most satisfactory overall performer for almost everything Chopin composed. But in the Nocturnes, IMHO, Moravec has outdone even Rubinstein. I have the complete Nocturnes by both pianists, and so I set my CD player to compare the two recordings for each individual nocturne side by side. Rubinstein's performance isn't bad, of course, but there is an audibly greater degree of comfort and depth of understanding in Moravec's playing. (I should also note that Moravec's recording has the benefit of better sound.) Moravec seems to have internalized the music and made it entirely his own. It almost sounds as if he were the composer as well as the soloist, so directly do these performances seem to come from the heart. Occasionally Rubinstein sounds halting or tentative, but Moravec never does. You can't go wrong with these!

Chopin's Nocturnes are among the most haunting, stirring, and beautiful pieces of music ever composed. They require both physical virtuosity and emotional committment in order to be performed to the degree which they deserve. Ivan Moravec accomplishes this and more, successfully recording the whole set (excepting the two posthumous works, KK IVa No. 16 & KK IVb No. 8). Every piece on the first disk is solid in all respects; the beautiful right-hand melodies are clear and distinct, the dynamics are carefully controlled, and an extacting sense of rubato is utilized. The first track, Op. 9 No. 1 is perhaps the most excellent performance on the set; the two hands work beautifully together, as the melody whispers gently above the rhythmically perfect left-hand harmonies. Also especially notable are the pieces which comprise Op. 37 and Op. 48, all four of which are brilliantly done. Op. 48 No. 1 gets a little out of control -- as it often does -- in the poco piu lento, but concludes with the most beautiful doppio movimento I have heard. The performances of Op. 55 and Op. 62 are mediocre, but I have yet to hear them played to my complete satisfaction. This is a wonderful set, among the finest performances of the Nocturnes ever.

This is the benchmark for "complete" recordings of Chopin's Nocturnes. You will NOT be disappointed with this purchase. Unfortunately, this set contains 19 nocturnes and excludes two posthumous pieces. If you want all 21 nocturnes, Pires's version is your best bet. I own Rubinstein, Pires, Barenboim, Ashkenazy, Biret.... To me, it's a tossup between Pires's sonically satisfying modern recording and Moravec's artistic benchmark. I will not reiterate the long list of lavished praise made by the previous reviewers.

Try to find the digitally remastered European version from Ultima Nonesuch. Even with the US Version, the sound quality is superior to Rubinstein set. The piano sounds full and there is no audible hiss. The US-licensed version from Supraphon has not been remastered.

This recording of the complete nocturnes is not only the best recording of the nocturnes available; it is also, in my opinion, the very best of any Chopin recording on the market. This is Chopin as he would have played it. Unfortunately, too many pianists today play Chopin with the mood shifts and tonal extremes that you would expect of Beethoven. Moravec, never one to show off, plays these Nocturnes just right. The recorded sound and tone of the piano is simply the most beautiful I've ever heard. The playing sounds quite effortless and the rubato is just right. I have never heard Chopin played more lyrically than on this recording. The amazing sound quality, the tone produced by Moravec, and quite simply the incredible interpretations make this the best Chopin album available.

As a 19 year old who has played piano for 10 years now, I heard Chopin's Nocturne in B-flat Minor, Op. 9, No. 1 on the radio once and knew I had to learn how to play it. Along with the music itself, I picked up this set of discs as "guidance," if you will. Well, Moravec's rendition of the B-flat Minor Nocturne is my favorite musical piece EVER, and both discs have spent more time in the CD player than in their case. A few of my other favorite Nocturnes are C-sharp Minor, Op. 27, No. 1, and C-minor Op. 48, No. 1, although the entire collection evokes such emotion that I can't listen to it unless I'm by myself for fear of others questioning my sanity.

Having nearly every Chopin Nocturne Collection listed on Amazon, I can say Moravec gets the most repeated plays... romantic, dreamy and enchanting. If you want the Nocturnes, get Moravec first...and if you are a student of Chopins Nocturnes or just a Nocturne nut like me, you will follow with Rubenstein, Vasary, Pires, Pollini, Idil Biret,Ohlsson, and a few other which are all beautiful and quite different from each other. If you want to avoid a stinker: Solo Piano: Impressions on Chopin's Nocturnes" by Jacques Loussier

Rating this performance is easy: I think Chopin himself would have loved it. My problem is with this old analog (AAD) issue: for some strange reason, the newer digital remaster of this recording is apparently not available in the US market. The good news is that you don't have to accept this shabby treatment: you can buy the digital version in European and Japanese online stores, including this store's international sites. Worked for me.

After repeatedly listening to the complete Chopin oeuvre during the past 40 years, I feel the nocturnes are the most characteristic of his compositions and like miniature universes full of new treasures with every hearing. All that Chopin thought and felt - but may have never spoken - seem to be contained within this collection, including his disquieting and troubling thoughts.

As for Chopin and Moravec, they seem perfectly suited for each other, almost as if Chopin had Moravec in mind when he composed these exquisite musical gems over 160 years ago - that is, other than of course the incomparable performance genius of Chopin himself according to eye witness accounts. (Imagine what treasures he'd have left behind if he'd been born in the digital age and his musical soirées with Franz Liszt, Felix Mendelssohn, and Robert Schumann could have been recorded for posterity.)

I'm drawn to these particular performances because I find them completely mesmerizing and spellbinding - ones that have me sitting on the edge of my seat wondering what musical magic Chopin will come up with next; they really pull me into Chopin's inner world of unimagined passion, tenderness, and longing. But more significantly, at least for me, is that at the base of these compositions is a foundation of absolute silence from which each note seems to emerge and return, especially under Moravec's measured but exquisite touch.

If Moravec had been a composer himself, he could not have done better than to have wished that these mood pieces were his - so hypnotizing is his performance and so perfectly are they suited for his temperament and refined sensibility.

If we take chopin's music to be a Slavic vehicle for singing with a rooting in Italian operas by Rossini and Bellini etc, and if we take these nocturnes to be some deeply felt poems of despair, then the fantasizing lyricism tinged with bitterness and agonizing solitude got to be the yardsticks. And from the interpretatin here, how much can we say these pieces heralded Tristan and Isolde?

Recently I have gone through most of these noctures played by Rubinstein, Arrau, Moravec and Cortot. The latter belongs to another category, for he had the greatest link with Chopin. Even in term of time or chronology, they were close. And despite numnerous attack on his "wrong notes" and liberal rubatos, he is irreplacable and insurpassable in many ways. The main hurdle lies with the primitive recording. And for obvious reasons, I would only recommend him to the more advanced pianists, and he recorded only six of them only.

As to the rest, we have some nice modern recordings. For Rubinstein, the "luckiest man" in the music world, I have yet to spend more time on him to feel his agony in these pieces--although his Polonaise is great. And yet in tempi as well as the overall way of playing (to some modern ears, there is a degree of playfuless), I suspect he was closest to Chopin amongst the three. From the earliest recorded heritage, particularly all those directly or indirectly having a connection with Chopin, like Moriz Rosenthal and Horszowki or even Cortot, or else the Lizst pupils, Dohnanyi, Hofmann, Freidmann Rachmaninov,Bartok, Backhaus... none of them played as tight and rigid as Horowitz, Richter, Gilels, or Pletnev or the Modern Russian school as a whole, not to mention Kissin.

So, in that sense, even Arrau's approach would be too modern, too structuralistic for Chopin. As for Moravec, the extent of his rubatos even exceeded that of Arrau. The fact is both have a most beautiful piano sound, particularly Arrau, the latter a bit more powerful. But back in Chopin's time, their recitals were essentially saloon music, meant for a few hundred audience at most. So Moravec's comparative softness is justified. But on the other hand, facing a modern audience of a thousand or more and equipped with a much more powerful modern piano, a heavier handed approach is also understandable or even desirable.

Coming to mannerism, undoubtedly Arrau could abnegate himself more: he has the widest possible repertoire and he excelled in most of them. Even talking about music, things like rhythm, phrasing, structure and drama etc, sure, it's matter of taste, and taste would sure change as we mature and in response to the changes in the macro-world. At the moment I still more attracted to Arrau as far as "despair" and "agony" are concerned, well, perhaps even the cantabile tone or the sense of drama as a whole... When I was younger, there was a time I preferred Moravec and I found Arrau too heavy-handed and his rubatos not quite up to the mark ( still so for Cortot's fans I believe). Now I have no hesitation in recommending him to pianists of all level and to all music lovers. Likewise I would also recommend Moravec's Nocturnes to them: they still stand as one of the top choices for these peices in any event. Very worthwhile to see what enjoyment and inspirations they will bring you. Highly recommended.