Customer Reviews

Piano Concerti

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Frequently one hears criticism of the Concertos. This is quite remarkable in itself since Chopin is the one composer adored by not only amateur and professional performers but also by the general public. Yet one must admit that the Concertos lack that little something that the smaller pieces carry. This is most likely due to the composer's love affair with the piano. All else was secondary to him - voice, woods, reeds, brass. His piano sang, it cried tears like no violin ever has, it became an orchestra of sound in the Scherzos.

Still, Rubinstein's treatment of these works is anything but superficial. He gives the same articulate expression to them as he would the shortest Mazurka. Although an orchestra exists, it is the piano that shines through - like a movie with one actor and several off-stage voices. While the music itself may not be as exciting as other works, the performance is top-notch, the notes crystal clear, glittering. It is a masterful performance with not a single glitch.

I had the great privilege of hearing Rubinstein play the Chopin Concertos at Massey Hall in Toronto. In a generally anti-romantic age, two great pianists remained to carry the flag of romanticism. One is Horowitz and the other Arthur Rubinstein. His career mounted to the point where many considered him the greatest living all-round pianist: an artist at home with Beethoven, a Chopin pianist in the greatest tradition, a specialist in Spanish and impressionist music. The Chopin concertos display Rubinstein's poise and joie de vivre.To his overflowing temperament was added discipline,color and a fine musical mind. His playing of Chopin's music earned him the title, the romantic pianist "par excellence"-but the modern kind of romantic pianist. Romantic as it is, it is entirely unmannered, and almost always true to the text. His performances of these concertos shows playing expressed with a gorgeous tone, with bigness, sanity, directness and emotional clarity.
Considering the generation in which Rubinstein was reared, his respect for the text and his direct rhythm are all the more a miracle. His Chopin playing--and he was the greatest living Chopinist- unfolds with suavity, poetry and aristocracy, and above all, with ardor. As the man, so his music!

Author: Raymond Vacchino M.Mus. (MT) A.Mus. Licentiate,(honorary) L.R.S.M.