Customer Reviews

My Favorite Chopin

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

 

 

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 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.

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.

No one can honestly argue that Van Cliburn is poor at Chopin. His lyrical pianism is at its incomparable best, especially (despite what some say) in the "Heroic" Polonaise. Please discount the negative reviews - I was sorry to read them. To date I've not heard one recording of the Polonaise that equals Cliburn's interpretation, except one rare film of Arthur Rubinstein performing it - it was just as good as Cliburn's, though not better. (I think it may be impossible to play it better.) (The film is in the movie, "Carnegie Hall." Amazon sells it, and while the plot is thoroughly ridiculous, the music is incredible.)

It's not only the Polonaise that is marvelous - every other piece is purely beautiful. The "Winter Wind" Etude is dazzlingly furious and is played with spine-tingling eloquence - and faintly wistful and sad is the Waltz in C-sharp minor. The fact that one so young could easily express so many and varied, thoroughly convincing emotions is just one proof of his genius. Your dollars will not go to waste on this CD recorded by one of history's greatest pianists, who has all the best qualities of the legendary virtuosos; while he humbly considers himself "just a tiny mirror of the great legends I have known."

When I was young, I learned a couple of Chopin's shorter Preludes on the piano. I liked them so I decided to buy this record and see what some of his other works were like. I was blown away!! It made me a Chopin lover for life. On side 1 of the record (I'll always think of this as a record), the B Major Nocturne is a beautiful interlude between the mighty A Flat Polonaise and F Minor Fantaisie. Side 2 starts off with the 2 Etudes in A Minor and E Major, which contrast sharply in mood, but are equally brilliant. Cliburn's interpretation of the A Flat Ballade is maybe the best I've heard. As a Chopin interpreter, Cliburn strikes a nice balance between the metronome-like playing of Rubinstein and the flashiness of Horowitz. This is a very special recording for me as it made me want to get my hands on recordings of everything Chopin wrote, as well as music of his contemporaries such as Liszt and Schumann. And from there, it was on to many other composers of the various musical periods. But to me, Chopin will always stand above the rest in his originality and his ability to very quickly transport the listener to places of unsurpassed beauty.

As a non-musician who enjoys almost all kinds of music, I can't critique a classical pianist's technique, or compare one Chopin solo collection to another, as some reviewers can and do. All I can say is that I enjoy this 1961 album enough to keep it. I prefer piano with orchestra to an hour's worth of solo, whether it be the classics or jazz. But this is an affordable introduction to both Chopin and to Cliburn, and was a good seller when it was new. Back then, classical vinyl LP's actually drew mass attention from time to time. My slight disappointment is not with the sounds that come through my speakers, for the music is to my ears lovely. I gave the package less than five stars because I think BMG (The old RCA Victor) made a poor choice in giving two pages of its booklet over to a technical discussion of early stereo technology and gave Chopin, or the circumstances of each composition, no space at all. One gets a brief bio of Cliburn from '58 to '89, but no knowledge of the composer or how these selections fit into his body of work. Read all the reviews before deciding whether to buy it or not. I think it is a good value for the price.

"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." ~ Frederic Chopin ~

"The selections in this album are by no means all of my favorites; they are only a fraction of the many Chopin compositions that give me heartfelt pleasure. Out of Chopin's creativity came a complete repertoire - a repertoire so rich in variety of mood, style, and architecture that one can listen to two or even three successive all-Chopin evenings and find intense satisfaction....All of his music has a breadth, and even in its most complex moments presents a Mozartean lucidity." ~ Van Cliburn ~

The great classical pianist Van Cliburn is no stranger to the world of classical music. He is one of the most brilliant pianists I've ever heard and watched in my entire musical journey. I have collected some of his remarkable recordings and my appreciation for his talent deepened when I finally had the pleasure of watching him in a live concert. It was an amazing experience watching before my very eyes and listening before my very ears to his live performances. And I could truly assert that he is one brilliant pianist. He aptly described the music of Frederic Chopin on the above quote - I totally concur with his astute observations. Although Chopin died young at age 39, he left behind a treasure chest of beautiful and timeless music that revealed the soul of the piano.

Who else can masterfully play Chopin's masterpieces than a virtuoso on piano Van Cliburn himself who at age 12 won the "Chopin Award of the Kosciuszko Foundation," a statewide piano competition. The eight Chopin masterpieces in this notable album were recorded in May and June of 1961, three years after he took the world by storm at age 23 when he won the first "Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow" in 1958 where he captured not only the ears but also the hearts of classical music lovers who "responded to his magnetic personality and true virtuosity of his music making."

He flawlessly and very expressively played my number one favorite from this set, "Polonaise in A-Flat, Op. 53" also called "Heroic." So beautiful it is that two great songwriters in the Forties named Buddy Kaye and Ted Mossman were enchanted by this piece. Mossman adapted its charming melody, Kaye penned the lyrics, and they titled it "Till The End of Time." My favorite version of this gorgeous song is from my late father's record of Jane Morgan.

The album in its entirety is such a glorious listening experience especially my top choices "Etude in E, Op. 10, No. 3," "Ballade No. 3 in A-Flat, Op. 47" and "Nocturne in B, Op. 62, No. 1." These pieces have lyrical qualities and harmonic touches that make them endearing to the ears.

If you appreciate Van Cliburn's pianistic flair and have enjoyed this album as much as I do, you'll also be delighted with Van Cliburn: My Favorite Liszt, Van Cliburn - My Favorite Debussy, The World's Favorite Piano Music and Tchaikovsky: Concerto No. 1/Rachmaninoff: Concerto No. 2. Have a pleasant and lovely listening experience!

"Chopin had a reverential worship of art. He died adoring art in its mystic greatness, its highest revelations." ~ Franz Liszt ~

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. In my book no one can touch Van Cliburn playing Chopin. Truly inspired.

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.

This was recorded in that period just after his competition victory, when he played and recorded relentlessly. This was Van Cliburn in his prime. Most of the readings from this early period display wonderfully Romantic, plush playing. The recording quality is excellent, and brilliantly remastered for CD. This classic album is an excellent introduction to Chopin's piano music. If you like this, Van Cliburn did many other great recordings of Chopin, such as the pianistically beautiful B minor Sonata, with a feathery scherzo. Also, the Scherzo No. 2 - the favorite of the Four Scherzos.