Customer Reviews

Chopin: Piano Sonatas #2 & 3, Ballades, Op. 23,38,47 & 52, Scherzi Op. 20, 31, 39 & 54; Cecile Ousset

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

 

 

Recordings made in London, 1987. Sound is good.

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Ousset has a very smooth-fluid technique; her touch is light but stable.

Timing is good overall: she doesn't rush things, nor does she drag.

She has a nice sense also of rhythm and dynamics, contrast and continuity.

In the lento Marche funèbre, for example, Ousset catches very nicely the dreamy lyrical middle section, and she doesn't plod the March (as some do!): this makes for a very pleasing reading.

Ousset has a good vision of Chopin's architectonics.

She plays with excellent rhythm, but without an offensively aggressive attack.

In the No. 4 Scherzo, for example, she gets a nice spring and bounce without being cloyingly impish: a very good balance.

Ousset has good control with the Ballades in neither letting them get too weepy nor maniacally heroic; her reading of the Third Sonata is VERY compelling.

A noteworthy contribution to the Chopin discography.

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Comparative timings for Chopin's Third Sonata:

Cécile Ousset (1987):

I. [11'48"]

II. [02'43"]

III. [09'34"]

IV. [05'01"]

Maria João Pires (2008):

I. [13'42"]

II. [02'43"]

III. [10'23"]

IV. [05'48"]

Glenn Gould (1970):

I. [10'01"]

II. [02'18"]

III. [08'34"]

IV. [04'58"]

Tamás Vásáry (1963):

I. [08'53"]

II. [02'51"]

III. [09'22"]

IV. [05'09"]

Wilhelm Kempff (1958):

I. [08'51"]

II. [02'40"]

III. [08'32"]

IV. [05'22"]

Cyprien Katsaris (1991):

I. [13'28"]

II. [03'06"]

III. [10'13"]

IV. [05'03"]

Chopin

Glenn Gould Edition: Chopin / Mendelssohn / Scriabin / Prokofiev

Chopin: Piano Works [Etudes - Impromptus - Sonatas - Concertos - Mazurkas - Polonaise - Berceuse]

Wilhelm Kempff plays Chopin

Chopin: The Three Piano Sonatas

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Chopin: Ballades Nos. 1-4; Scherzos Nos. 1-4

Chopin: 4 Ballades/Barcarolle, Op.60/Fantasie in F

Chopin: 4 Scherzi/Berceuse/Barcarolle

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I have the original CD of the 3rd Sonata and the Ballades. The sound is great on that CD and like Edith Eisler said, the performances are superb. At the super low price, this double CD is an absolute bargain.

Chopins pianosonate 2 and the Scherzi are located on CD I. These recordings were made in 1987, the textbook is not very clear about that.

Cécile Ousset, in my opinion a great pianist, seems to have her bad day. She makes with difficulty her way through Chopins music, I hear no brilliance or sparkling, it was for me difficult to hear all that to the end.

May be Cécile Ousset is a very emotional person (I think she is) who performs mediocre the one day and breathtaking the other.

What a contrast with CD II ! This recording seems to have been made a year later on.

Now I recognise the fantastic artist of, for instance, the second Saint-Saens pianoconcerto of the 1982-recording! Highly concentrated Ousset demonstrates here her intelligent overall-conception of the works she is interpreting. It is as if she has in mind the end of a piece while playing the beginning and vice versa. That's the way music should be performed.

So: for DC I 3 stars, for CD II 5. Result: 4