The B flat minor Sonata is the centre-piece of this exceptionally generously filled new Chopin disc from Katin. His own vividly phrased notes in the accompanying booklet leave no doubt of his conception of the work as ''a terrifying vision of death''. At the piano he nevertheless keeps emotion under strict control in a performance of exemplary clarity and rhythmic control. In this he has more in common with Pollini on DG (notwithstanding Pollini's greater expressive intensity) than with Ashkenazy (Decca), who often through faster tempo—evokes a more impressionable, more vulnerable Chopin, haunted, in his deserted Valldemosan monastery, by wind-swept spectres of death. The controversial feature of Katin's performance is the very slow funeral march. Whereas the quaver beat from most players emerges at something between 90–108, Katin's is about 63. His approach to the Andante sostenuto in Schubert's posthumous B flat Sonata (reviewed last October) was much the same, presumably in the belief that the slower you play a slow movement the more laden it becomes. I can't agree, even while conceding that what Katin does here is beautifully done.
Like Arrau and Davidovich (both Philips) amongst current CD contenders, he also favours leisure in the A flat Ballade. But because his own style is not quite as introspectively romantic as theirs the music seems to need a little more flow—and lilt. As it is, he switches to something faster even though Chopin requests no change, at the move into C sharp minor heralding the triumphant home-coming.
For the four Mazurkas of Op. 24 I have nothing but praise. All four are potently characterized, with an ideal compromise between song and dance. The early Variations brillantes are wholly winning too. Done with such sparkle and grace they make it easy to understand why Schumann was moved to salute the young Chopin as ''a genius''. I also much enjoyed Katin's light-fingered caprice in the concluding Op. 22.
The recording is slightly shallower in tone than the Decca and DG records listed above. But at a playing time of 70 minutes the disc is still quite a find.'