Est 1923

Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition

Mighty Mussorgsky but Chopin’s delicacy is harmed by impulsive ways

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: Fryderyk Chopin, Modest Mussorgsky

Genre:

Instrumental

Label: Integral Classic

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 70

Mastering:

Stereo
DDD

Catalogue Number: INT221164

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
Pictures at an Exhibition Modest Mussorgsky, Composer
Marilyn Frascone, Piano
Modest Mussorgsky, Composer
Fantasie Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Marilyn Frascone, Piano
Berceuse Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Marilyn Frascone, Piano
Mazurkas (Complete), Movement: No. 22 in G sharp minor, Op. 33/1 (1837-38) Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Marilyn Frascone, Piano
Mazurkas (Complete), Movement: No. 23 in D, Op. 33/2 (1837-38) Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Marilyn Frascone, Piano
Mazurkas (Complete), Movement: No. 24 in C, Op. 33/3 (1837-38) Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Marilyn Frascone, Piano
Mazurkas (Complete), Movement: No. 25 in B minor, Op. 33/4 (1837-38) Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Marilyn Frascone, Piano
(16) Polonaises, Movement: No. 6 in A flat, Op. 53, 'Heroic' Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Marilyn Frascone, Piano

Composer or Director: Fryderyk Chopin

Genre:

Instrumental

Label: Diversions

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 67

Mastering:

Stereo
DDD

Catalogue Number: DDV24129

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
Nocturnes, Movement: No. 13 in C minor, Op. 48/1 Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Alicja Fiderkiewicz, Piano
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Nocturnes, Movement: No. 14 in F sharp minor, Op. 48/2 Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Alicja Fiderkiewicz, Piano
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Mazurkas (Complete), Movement: No. 14 in G minor, Op. 24/1 (1834-35) Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Alicja Fiderkiewicz, Piano
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Mazurkas (Complete), Movement: No. 15 in C, Op. 24/2 (1834-35) Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Alicja Fiderkiewicz, Piano
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Mazurkas (Complete), Movement: No. 16 in A flat, Op. 24/3 Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Alicja Fiderkiewicz, Piano
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Mazurkas (Complete), Movement: No. 17 in B flat minor, Op. 24/4 (1834-35) Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Alicja Fiderkiewicz, Piano
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Mazurkas (Complete), Movement: No. 36 in A minor, Op. 59/1 (1845) Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Alicja Fiderkiewicz, Piano
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Mazurkas (Complete), Movement: No. 37 in A flat, Op. 59/2 (1845) Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Alicja Fiderkiewicz, Piano
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Mazurkas (Complete), Movement: No. 38 in F sharp minor, Op. 59/3 (1845) Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Alicja Fiderkiewicz, Piano
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
(4) Ballades, Movement: No. 3 in A flat, Op. 47 Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Alicja Fiderkiewicz, Piano
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
(26) Preludes, Movement: C sharp minor, Op. 45 Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Alicja Fiderkiewicz, Piano
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
(16) Polonaises, Movement: No. 7 in A flat, Op. 61, 'Polonaise-fantaisie' Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Alicja Fiderkiewicz, Piano
Fryderyk Chopin, Composer
Chopin and Mussorgsky make odd bedfellows but Marilyn Frascone’s disc brings them into some form of alliance. Indeed, it is almost as if the force and character of her way with Mussorgsky’s unwieldy masterpiece had invaded her Chopin where her outsize technique and sonority set every page of the F minor Fantaisie ablaze with passion. On the other hand, the Berceuse was perhaps an unwise choice for such an extrovert pianist: compared with performances of greater delicacy and restraint Frascone can seem heavy-handed, with nagging rather than gently tolling bass D flats throughout. Her Mazurkas, too, are similarly inflated and in the A flat Polonaise her stilted rubato makes you wish that she would allow Chopin more of his natural voice.

But Frascone’s Mussorgsky is among the most action-packed on record, brilliantly alive and with nothing of studio restraint to compromise a sense of the music’s originality. She sends “Baba Yaga” on a dizzying flight across the night sky and her weight and tonal resource in both “Bydlo” and “The Great Gate of Kiev” are awe-inspiring.

Returning to Chopin, Alicja Fiderkiewicz also tends to overstate, trying too hard for maximum eloquence. Free-spirited to the last, she leaves a fashionably nonchalant or disengaged Chopin to others, storming through the C minor Nocturne’s central fusillade of octaves with a sure sense of rhetoric and declamation. Elsewhere, her rubato is more push-and-pull than give-and-take and her impulsive fits and starts disfigure much of the A flat Ballade and Polonaise-fantaisie. There are also some wildly rushed fences at the end of the latter and several smudges that would have benefited from a producer’s hand. Both discs are well recorded.

Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition

Pictures at an Exhibition

Fantasie

Berceuse

Mazurkas (Complete), Movement: No. 22 in G sharp minor, Op. 33/1 (1837-38)

Mazurkas (Complete), Movement: No. 23 in D, Op. 33/2 (1837-38)

Mazurkas (Complete), Movement: No. 24 in C, Op. 33/3 (1837-38)

Mazurkas (Complete), Movement: No. 25 in B minor, Op. 33/4 (1837-38)

(16) Polonaises, Movement: No. 6 in A flat, Op. 53, 'Heroic'

Chopin Piano Works

Nocturnes, Movement: No. 13 in C minor, Op. 48/1

Nocturnes, Movement: No. 14 in F sharp minor, Op. 48/2

Mazurkas (Complete), Movement: No. 14 in G minor, Op. 24/1 (1834-35)

Mazurkas (Complete), Movement: No. 15 in C, Op. 24/2 (1834-35)

Mazurkas (Complete), Movement: No. 16 in A flat, Op. 24/3

Mazurkas (Complete), Movement: No. 17 in B flat minor, Op. 24/4 (1834-35)

Mazurkas (Complete), Movement: No. 36 in A minor, Op. 59/1 (1845)

Mazurkas (Complete), Movement: No. 37 in A flat, Op. 59/2 (1845)

Mazurkas (Complete), Movement: No. 38 in F sharp minor, Op. 59/3 (1845)

(4) Ballades, Movement: No. 3 in A flat, Op. 47

(26) Preludes, Movement: C sharp minor, Op. 45

(16) Polonaises, Movement: No. 7 in A flat, Op. 61, 'Polonaise-fantaisie'

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