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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
29 of 29 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
This recording was instrumental in influencing the direction my life would take.
I wore out a vinyl copy of this recording when I was young. This album of Chopin as played by Van Cliburn spoke to me as a 10-year-old child. It comforted me through the death of close friends and inspired me to keep practicing the piano through the turbulent teen years. I came back to it many years later after pursuing a M.M. degree in music and found that it still held up. It is as inspiring, technically amazing, and as wonderful as I remember it as a child.
What I also find outstanding about this recording is the clarity and quality of the recorded sound. It sounds like it was recorded recently with the latest technology when it was actually recorded in 1961! Indeed, I prefer it over the quality of many "modern" discs I own.
My love of the piano led me to become a concert piano technician specializing in Steinway. When I learned to voice pianos I found I no longer liked most of the piano recordings in my collection. On the other hand, this recording only got better. I hold the piano in this recording as the ideal representation of the incomparable tone of the New York Steinway. When I voice a piano, my goal is to draw from it the warmth, color, and sheer beauty of tone found in this recording. I would be interested to know where this piano is today.
As the technician for a respected symphony orchestra in the U.S., I have tuned for many of the world's great pianists - including Van Cliburn. So it has come full circle. In my mind this is truly one of the top piano recordings of the twentieth century and Van Cliburn is one of its great pianists.
I wore out a vinyl copy of this recording when I was young. This album of Chopin as played by Van Cliburn spoke to me as a 10-year-old child. It comforted me through the death of close friends and inspired me to keep practicing the piano through the turbulent teen years. I came back to it many years later after pursuing a M.M. degree in music and found that it still held up. It is as inspiring, technically amazing, and as wonderful as I remember it as a child.
What I also find outstanding about this recording is the clarity and quality of the recorded sound. It sounds like it was recorded recently with the latest technology when it was actually recorded in 1961! Indeed, I prefer it over the quality of many "modern" discs I own.
My love of the piano led me to become a concert piano technician specializing in Steinway. When I learned to voice pianos I found I no longer liked most of the piano recordings in my collection. On the other hand, this recording only got better. I hold the piano in this recording as the ideal representation of the incomparable tone of the New York Steinway. When I voice a piano, my goal is to draw from it the warmth, color, and sheer beauty of tone found in this recording. I would be interested to know where this piano is today.
As the technician for a respected symphony orchestra in the U.S., I have tuned for many of the world's great pianists - including Van Cliburn. So it has come full circle. In my mind this is truly one of the top piano recordings of the twentieth century and Van Cliburn is one of its great pianists.
21 of 21 people found the following review helpful
By Scott Taylor
Format:Audio CD
I am a fan of remasters. Old recordings receive a second wind through their re-release on a digitally-mastered CD. Van Cliburn is as convincing as ever in this Chopin recital. He sings through the instrument on the E major Etude. He goes to war on The A-Flat Polonaise. Van Cliburn and Chopin make a good match. An exceptional programme performed with virtuosity.
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
By Mark Wuschke
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
I loved this album so much I have bought it four times; I wore out two vinyl copies and a CD. This is the best pianist of the 20th century playing some of the best piano music ever written. Van Cliburn's meteoric rise to fame was no accident. His effortless technical perfection, his ability to play the great works with feeling and grandeur are unique. On this album he has chosen 8 tracks that demonstrate the incredible breadth of Chopin's piano music.
It opens with the stirring `Heroic' Polonaise, a piece found in many Chopin collections, but often played badly. Too many pianists treat this with exaggerated rubato, or worse as a race to finish as fast as possible. Chopin despised wildly exaggerated tempos (he kept a metronome on his student's piano at all times). Cliburn plays it as it was intended - with strength and majesty.
Following is the 19th Nocturne, a deeply introspective mood piece played with great feeling, its harp-like ending one of the most beautiful in classical music.
The Fantaise is Chopin's longest work, a powerful piece blending many themes of great beauty. Its mournful adagio section provides a tranquil interlude between many restless and turbulent passages.
Next are two of Chopin's popular Etudes, `Winter Wind', which boils and swirls up and down the keyboard, a piece of great technical difficulty perfectly played. The E major etude is by the composer's own admission "the most beautiful melody" he had ever penned.
The Ballade in A flat is infrequently recorded; a bright and happy piece who's dance-like opening statement comes back over and over in many delightful forms. Concluding with a great flourish, its easy to see why Cliburn chose this as a favourite; its fun to play. It is followed by the well known Waltz in C# minor.
The album concludes with the powerful Scherzo in C# minor, an intense and often wild piece, with startling contrasts in mood from dark thundering octaves of the main theme, to the beautiful cascading arpeggios; it is Chopin at the peak of his creativity.
You would never guess that MFC was recorded in 1961; this re-mastered production has bell-like clarity, better than many more recent piano recordings. If you buy only 1 Chopin album, this is the one.
It opens with the stirring `Heroic' Polonaise, a piece found in many Chopin collections, but often played badly. Too many pianists treat this with exaggerated rubato, or worse as a race to finish as fast as possible. Chopin despised wildly exaggerated tempos (he kept a metronome on his student's piano at all times). Cliburn plays it as it was intended - with strength and majesty.
Following is the 19th Nocturne, a deeply introspective mood piece played with great feeling, its harp-like ending one of the most beautiful in classical music.
The Fantaise is Chopin's longest work, a powerful piece blending many themes of great beauty. Its mournful adagio section provides a tranquil interlude between many restless and turbulent passages.
Next are two of Chopin's popular Etudes, `Winter Wind', which boils and swirls up and down the keyboard, a piece of great technical difficulty perfectly played. The E major etude is by the composer's own admission "the most beautiful melody" he had ever penned.
The Ballade in A flat is infrequently recorded; a bright and happy piece who's dance-like opening statement comes back over and over in many delightful forms. Concluding with a great flourish, its easy to see why Cliburn chose this as a favourite; its fun to play. It is followed by the well known Waltz in C# minor.
The album concludes with the powerful Scherzo in C# minor, an intense and often wild piece, with startling contrasts in mood from dark thundering octaves of the main theme, to the beautiful cascading arpeggios; it is Chopin at the peak of his creativity.
You would never guess that MFC was recorded in 1961; this re-mastered production has bell-like clarity, better than many more recent piano recordings. If you buy only 1 Chopin album, this is the one.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Remembering his winning in Russia, what a talent.
Van Cliburn is my favorite of all pianists, especially while playing
Chopin, my favorite composer. I remember when he won the talent
contest in Russia. Such talent.
Chopin, my favorite composer. I remember when he won the talent
contest in Russia. Such talent.
Published 17 days ago by Sherrill Casner
5.0 out of 5 stars
No One Better
Van Cliburn has always been my favorite pianist; beautiful execution, but also interpretation that makes the music say what the composer intended. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Roberta A. Patterson
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best!
This collection has given me so many hours of listening pleasure. Van Cliburn playing Chopin--it doesn't get much better than that for me. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Serious reader
5.0 out of 5 stars
My Favorite Chopin-Van Cliburn
My mother bought this album when it was released. It soon became one of my favorites and I ended up listening to it more than she did. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Stan Joachim
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful CD
Noone can beat VanCliburn at the piano and Chopin. You will recognize these masterpieces.
Published on November 30, 2009 by J. Huhn
5.0 out of 5 stars
"Chopin's Music Presents A Mozartean Lucidity"
"The universe is the soul and heart of man. It is there that I look for nuances of every feeling which I transfer to music as well as I can. Read more
Published on April 13, 2009 by Rebecca*rhapsodyinblue*
5.0 out of 5 stars
Van Cliburn's grand style is perfect for Chopin!
This was recorded in that period just after his competition victory, when he played and recorded relentlessly. This was Van Cliburn in his prime. Read more
Published on March 14, 2009 by M. Wood
5.0 out of 5 stars
My Absolute Favorite Chopin Album
If I was stuck on a deserted island this would be one the albums I would want with me! I have loved this album deeply since I was a child and will listen to it the rest of my life. Read more
Published on October 20, 2007 by Red Emma
5.0 out of 5 stars
Van Cliburn
Van Cliburn is one of the best classical pianist of all times. He plays Chopin beautifully as he does any music. I am amazed that anyone would write a bad review about his playing.
Published on March 11, 2006 by Brad P.
2.0 out of 5 stars
for the most part horrific (with a couple exceptions)
The playing here is so bad that I thought my eyes were deceiving me when I saw the label "Van Cliburn". It is hard to even know where to begin. Read more
Published on January 12, 2006 by pianoman
