Chopin: Complete Piano Music [BOX SET]

Frederic Chopin (Composer), Robert Stankovsky (Conductor, Performer), Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra Kosice (Orchestra), Idil Biret (Performer, Conductor), Martin Sauer (Performer), Idil Biret (Artist), Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra (Artist), Robert Stankovsky (Artist)

Product Details

• Performer: Robert Stankovsky, Idil Biret, Martin Sauer
• Orchestra: Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra Kosice
• Conductor: Robert Stankovsky, Idil Biret
• Composer: Frederic Chopin
• Audio CD (September 28, 1999)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 15
• Format: Box set
• Note on Boxed Sets: During shipping, discs in boxed sets occasionally become dislodged without damage. Please examine and play these discs. If you are not completely satisfied, we'll refund or replace your purchase.
• Label: Naxos
• ASIN: B00001NTN0
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #178,786 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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  #7 in	Music > Classical > Ballets & Dances > Bourees
  #18 in	Music > Classical > Featured Performers, A-Z > ( B ) > Biret, Idil
  #20 in	Music > Classical > Ballets & Dances > Mazurkas

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

This 15-disc set, recorded from 1990 to 1992, is a truly complete survey of Chopin's piano music, including juvenilia and the works for piano and orchestra. It may not be quite the triumph of Biret's Brahms set, in which the performances are competitive with the best to be heard anywhere. But all of this playing is thoroughly worthy of the music, and Biret's technique is strong enough to deal with such hurdles as the Études and Scherzi without flinching. Her style is a bit more straightforward than that of the most famous Chopin poets (such as Rubinstein and Cortot), making these recordings a particularly good bet for students and listeners who are first learning to love Chopin. One can often come up with a (more expensive) recording that expresses even more of the poetry of the music than Biret does: Moravec's Nocturnes, Rubinstein's Mazurkas, Zayas's Études, and so on. And occasionally some of the lesser-known music (such as the First Sonata) might be better skipped except by scholars and curious listeners who want to know why these pieces are so obscure. But finding 15 well-filled CDs of such great music, in such excellent performances, so well recorded, for such an absurdly low price becomes an irresistible bargain. Even connoisseurs who know the great Chopin recordings of the past may well find these recordings a refreshing alternate view of the music. --Leslie Gerber

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

52 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Biret is playing Chopin in a breathtaking interpretation., November 10, 1999

By A Customer

Idil biret's Chopin recordings first released in 1991/92 received very favourable reviews. The eminent musicologist Henry Louis de La Grange wrote in Le Nouvel Observateur in France "Idil Biret, this great pianist is playing Chopin in its entirety in a breathtaking interpretation. One could not imagine that the Ballades, Preludes, Sonatas, Scherzi, Polonaises,Nocturnes, Mazurkas and the Concertos would today find and interpreter of this dimension". Germany's most important music critic Joachim Kaiser writing in the Bunte Magazine put Biret's interpretation of Chopin among the best available versions. In the US, Igor Kipnis wrote in Stereophile that Biret's complete Chopin edition stood among the highest echelons of contemporary Chopin playing. The readers of the Classic CD magazine in the United Kingdom selected Biret's Chopin preludes among the best recordings of 1993. In 1995 Biret's complete editon received in Poland a "Grand Prix du Disque Frederic Chopin" awarded once in every five years (there were 46 entries that year and two were given prizes).

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't miss this, February 21, 2000

By	Ole Skipper (Aarhus, Denmark) - See all my reviews

No-one with the slightest interest in Chopin should miss Idil Birets recordings of his complete works. There are a few minor disappointments (notably the Waltzes and the Concertos), but most of these interpretations rank with the finest available, and Biret plays with a freshness of approach that sheds new light on this wonderful music. Even those who think they live happily with Pollini, Ashkenazy etc., should check this out. You might be surprised! The piano-sound is slightly to the bright and thin side, but enjoyable enough.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Worth the price, but you get what you pay for, July 28, 2005

By	Ryan Lidster "Canadian Ryan" (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Ms. Gerber sums it up very well above: the playing is not what you'd find from Rubinstein, Cortot, or Ashkenazy, but it is still better than many recordings out there, and is a tremendous bargain.

Chopin only wrote one piece in his entire life that didn't include the piano, so a collection this complete of his piano music is a fascinating look into Chopin's creative life, and as a study in music history, it is worth the time. Nevertheless, people who are searching out definitive performances of more familiar works should probably search elsewhere.

Now, I am not a professional music critic, and I would never say that you should trust me over the critics. In fact, much of the acclaim this set receives is merited. Her first and fourth ballades are fine performances, and the scherzi and polonaise in A flat are well executed. That being said, I personally found several other performances to be large disappointments. (For the record, her recording was not universally praised, and some of the favourable reviews, like mine, are somewhat back-handed, but overall the set was a critical success.)

In particular, I couldn't help but think that the Berceuse, third ballade, several of the preludes, the First Concerto, and the Barcarolle were mediocre. In the Barcarolle, Biret's tempi are erratic and constantly changing, sometimes in the opposite way as Chopin indicated! (Where Chopin writes "poco piu mosso" at the transition to the B section, Biret slows to a crawl) Her dynamics are similarly strange and sometimes backward, and the climax is rushed and unmoving. For the third Opus 28 Prelude in e minor--probably one of the best-known preludes after the Raindrop in D flat--Biret takes almost a full measure's worth to play the opening figure (which is written to last one beat), and then proceeds to choose an allegretto tempo despite Chopin's directions to play slowly. She indulges here, and throughout much of the rest of the CDs, in a rubato that breaks momentum and makes it very difficult to follow the melody. It is as if a singer were to take a breath in the middle of important words--it quickly becomes hard to understand a thing she was saying.

It is true that many performers deviate from the score, sometimes in ways that enhance the musicality of the performance. Indeed, even Chopin was reported to play with dynamics that were different than the ones he himself wrote in the score, but Biret's indulgences take away from, rather than add to, the performances. I personally found many of the interpretative decisions to be distracting, or even unmusical.

I don't mean this to sound at all mean-spirited, but if I were to sum up my feelings of this set in one sentence, it would be this:

It is worth every dollar of its relatively low price.