Chopin Piano Works
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Fryderyk Chopin
Label: Unicorn-Kanchana
Magazine Review Date: 7/1994
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 124
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: DKPCD9147/8
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Nocturnes |
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer Kathryn Stott, Piano |
| Fantaisie-impromptu |
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer Kathryn Stott, Piano |
| Barcarolle |
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer Kathryn Stott, Piano |
Author: Joan Chissell
Stott not only includes the two posthumously published Nocturnes in C sharp minor and C minor after the usual 19, but also launches her two discs with the C sharp minor Fantaisie-impromptu as well as ending with what the late Arthur Hedley described as ''the finest Nocturne of all'', otherwise the Barcarolle. I think I'm right in saying that none of her rivals is more generous. And it's good to be able to add that the recording itself, made in St George's, Brandon Hill, Bristol is pleasingly ripe and true.
She herself never for a moment allows you to forget that Chopin totally transformed the nocturne, as a genre, from the sphere of the drawing-room aquarelle into something infinitely more personal and potent. Right from the start she opens your ears to the mystery of shadowland and night. Her playing is both deeply felt and sensitive, and always with melody beguilingly sung. Dipping into the set at random for this or that piece you are not likely to be disappointed. But such is her essential seriousness of approach, with few, if any, yieldings to the impulse of the moment, that you are aware of how much she chooses to emphasize Chopin's slow tempo markings throughout. And I'm bound to admit that in listening to these 21 Nocturnes straight off, as a reviewer indeed must, I missed the full variety of mood so miraculously to be found in Rubinstein's now legendary recordings. Sometimes his own choice of tempo might be thought questionably fast—as perhaps in the Italianate No. 8 in D flat, Op. 27 No. 2, which from Stott is more like a dream, and certainly so in the eloquent final C sharp minor piece, Op. 62 No. 2, where she seems more closely attuned to its valedictory note. But how much more keenly he conveys the ecstasy in No. 16 in E flat, Op. 55 No. 2 (as well as the subtlety of its duetting) with his more urgent flow. I also thought Stott just a little unresponsive to the major-key lightening of heart in No. 12 in G, Op. 37 No. 2, and No. 17 in B, Op. 62 No. 1. In the great C sharp minor (Op. 27 No. 1) and C minor (Op. 48 No. 1) Nocturnes, both in the nature of laden tone-poems, she compensates for exceptionally held-back starts with her fervour in their later climaxes (though surely her left-hand chord-spreading is too slow at the start of the latter's central poco piu lento section).
The climaxes of the Barcarolle are equally eager and ardent, even if that in the reprise is not achieved without momentary sacrifice of this composer's aristocratic elegance. Unflagging in impulse, theFantaisie-impromptu brings vivid contrasts of restlessly surging minor-key semiquavers (where she achieves an excellent compromise between Chopin's long-held pedals and clarity of detail) and glowing major-key song. I've rarely enjoyed it more.'
She herself never for a moment allows you to forget that Chopin totally transformed the nocturne, as a genre, from the sphere of the drawing-room aquarelle into something infinitely more personal and potent. Right from the start she opens your ears to the mystery of shadowland and night. Her playing is both deeply felt and sensitive, and always with melody beguilingly sung. Dipping into the set at random for this or that piece you are not likely to be disappointed. But such is her essential seriousness of approach, with few, if any, yieldings to the impulse of the moment, that you are aware of how much she chooses to emphasize Chopin's slow tempo markings throughout. And I'm bound to admit that in listening to these 21 Nocturnes straight off, as a reviewer indeed must, I missed the full variety of mood so miraculously to be found in Rubinstein's now legendary recordings. Sometimes his own choice of tempo might be thought questionably fast—as perhaps in the Italianate No. 8 in D flat, Op. 27 No. 2, which from Stott is more like a dream, and certainly so in the eloquent final C sharp minor piece, Op. 62 No. 2, where she seems more closely attuned to its valedictory note. But how much more keenly he conveys the ecstasy in No. 16 in E flat, Op. 55 No. 2 (as well as the subtlety of its duetting) with his more urgent flow. I also thought Stott just a little unresponsive to the major-key lightening of heart in No. 12 in G, Op. 37 No. 2, and No. 17 in B, Op. 62 No. 1. In the great C sharp minor (Op. 27 No. 1) and C minor (Op. 48 No. 1) Nocturnes, both in the nature of laden tone-poems, she compensates for exceptionally held-back starts with her fervour in their later climaxes (though surely her left-hand chord-spreading is too slow at the start of the latter's central poco piu lento section).
The climaxes of the Barcarolle are equally eager and ardent, even if that in the reprise is not achieved without momentary sacrifice of this composer's aristocratic elegance. Unflagging in impulse, the
Chopin Piano Works
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