The Chopin Project » Recordings

Waltz in C-sharp Minor, Op. 64, No. 2

Fryderyk — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 22:54:34 +0000

Listen to Waltz in C-sharp Minor, Op. 64, No. 2 by Fryderyk Chopin

Acclaimed Chopin Project pianist Svetlana Smolina will play Chopin’s Twenty-four Preludes, Op. 28 as part of her performance tomorrow at 4:30PM (Friday, March 5th) at the Winter Garden main stage in New York’s World Financial Center. Ms Smolina is among the virtuosi performing in the 200 hour Wall Street marathon celebrating the 200th anniversary of Chopin’s birth.

Chopin once wrote, “When one does a thing, it appears good, otherwise one would not write it. Only later comes reflection, and one discards or accepts the thing. Time is the best censor, and patience a most excellent teacher.”Upon further reflection, Chopin must have realized that this Waltz was an all-time keeper, a favorite of piano virtuosos and amateurs alike since Chopin’s own time. It was a notable favorite of Artur Rubinstein. In fact, the Chopin.Net site has a nice anecdote about Rubinstein:

When people asked him how he could continue to play the same waltz for over 75 years, he replied, “Because it’s not the same, and I don’t play it the same way.”

Cantabile in B-flat, KK 1230 (1834) – A Chopin Rarity

bkr — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 20:21:00 +0000

“One is loath to believe that the echo of Chopin’s magic music can ever fall upon unheeding ears. He may become old-fashioned, but, like Mozart, he will remain eternally beautiful.”

Even for a piece barely more than a minute in length, the “eternally beautiful” Chopin cited by writer and pianist james Huneker (author of the definitive book Chopin: The Man and his Music) is evident in this brief Cantabile. This little gem often turns up folios and other albums devoted to 19th-century miniatures, though it didn’t actually appear in print until 1931, nearly 100 years after Chopin compoosed it.

Cantabile, after all, is defined as “to sing or play in a sweetly singing manner.” See if you don’t think that’s exactly what Chopin Project Pianist Noel McRobbie does in this performance…

Introduction & Bolero in A, Op. 19

bkr — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 05:16:38 +0000

Decades before Maurice Ravel came along, Chopin also found inspiration in the old Spanish dance known as the Bolero, defined as “A Spanish dance and song, in moderate tempo and triple metre, popular at the end of the 18th century and throughout the 19th, often performed with guitar and castenets.” In fact, the Spanish Bolero was rythmically related to the polonaise of Chopin’s native country, and even Beethoven wrote a Bolero a solo … it’s one of his minor “without Opus” works, WoO 158.

Regardless of origin or inspiration, it’s one of Chopin’s more unusual works, dating from 1833. He tacked on an Introduction in C major that serves as an evocative attention-getter that sets up the uniquely Spanish-Polish Bolero that follows.

Hear pianist Xiaofeng Wu perform Chopin’s Introduction & Bolero in A, Op. 19 in concert at the University of Michigan’s Britton Recital Hall.

The Chopin Currency – May 17th, 2008

bkr — Sun, 18 May 2008 01:00:00 +0000

Chopin News, Reviews, and Previews:

A Chopin extravaganza
Times Online – UK

Nice Times of London summation of the BBC Radio 3 Chopin Experience:

After the Beethoven and Tchaikovsky Experiences and the Bach Christmas it’s time for Frédéric Chopin to sit in a deckchair in the Elysian Fields, sip a piña colada and wince as Radio 3 exposes every recorded note he ever wrote (including the bad ones, as only a mediocre talent is always at its best).

What’s different about The Chopin Experience (from today, 7am) is that Radio 3 has not redrawn its usual programme schedule to accommodate it. Which throws up a few apparent anomalies. Take, for example, The Early Music Show (today, 1pm). Or, in this instance, the Earlier Music than Now Show, since Chopin, era-wise, is no John Dowland.

That aside, it’s a fascinating listen in which three piano performances are compared – one Chopin’s, one by a pupil of his, and one given on a restoration of a Pleyel square piano similar to one that he might have played.

The cultural documentary strand World Routes (today, 3pm) is a better fit, in that Lucy Duran is in Warsaw, exploring some of the traditional folk forms associated with Chopin. Then, in programming guaranteed to further enrage those listeners who tune in to Radio 3 only to be enraged by it, Jazz Lineup (today, 4pm) includes a talk with the foremost proponent of classics-to-jazz, Jacques Loussier. He’s best known for reinterpreting Bach, but his trio has dabbled with Chopin, and his thoughts are illuminating.

See all stories on this topic

Fancy a Romantic weekend with Frederic Chopin?
Times Online – UK

Accompanying sidebar essay about “why many pianists find him too weepy.” Worth a read! And check out the recommended recordings (Perahia, Cortot, Rubinstein, etc) at the bottom…

Is the man worth this much fuss? In principle, yes. Chopin may not have had any imitators, but that’s only because his individuality as a composer is so strong. His melodies curl about and stick in the mind like no one else’s. His harmonies waft a pungent perfume all their own, and invite you into an imaginative, mercurial world unique in music history.

True, he wrote no epic symphonies, no operas, no oratorios, no sacred passions – none of the period’s usual outlets for lofty musical thoughts. But he used his preferred short forms with such a degree of innovation and imagination that even people who feel distaste at his music’s emotional atmosphere respect Chopin for his craft.

Well, not everyone respects him. In a 1981 radio interview the notoriously eccentric Canadian pianist Glenn Gould brashly announced that Chopin (and Liszt and Schu-bert) “had no idea of how to write for the piano”. On another occasion, Gould called Chopin “not a very good composer”. Heavens above, you might think, if those keyboard composers couldn’t get past Gould’s pearly gates who could?

Such idiosyncratic opinions should not be rejected completely. Chopin, for all his wide popularity, remains a complex, often misunderstood, figure, and if this weekend’s bonanza helps us to peer into his many-sided character and find a man who wrote much more than pretty music, the world will be a better place.

The truth is, Chopin is a tricky customer. Even pianists in full sympathy with him approach his music with some trepidation. The British pianist Stephen Hough, the veteran of a fine CD of the Ballades, declares his music to be so fearfully perfect, so polished, lacking a single ugly bar, that “if a piece doesn’t naturally sound beautiful it can only be the performer’s fault”.

For Simon Trpceski, responsible for one of the most volcanic of recent CD Chopin recitals, playing this composer also carries risks. “There’s a Macedonian saying,” he says, “about going with your hat to break a wall.” And we should remember Tamás Vásáry’s comment to Jeremy Siepmann in the 1990s about Chopin leaving nowhere to hide. “With Chopin,” he said, “you often feel quite naked.”

See all stories on this topic

Nocturne in C minor, Op. 48, No. 1

bkr — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 14:26:27 +0000

“Magnificent in its breadth, it profound expression, and its tremendous sonority.” Dr. Frank Cooper’s summation of this Chopin Nocturne, composed in 1841, just about says it all. But if you want to know more, click here. Or else check out the marvelous collection of Chopin early editions at the University of Chicago library.

Hear pianist Polina Khatsko play this poignant Nocturne in C minor, Op. 48, No. 1 in a Chopin Project live performance at the University of Michigan’s Britton Recital Hall

Nocturne in B, Op. 62 No. 1

bkr — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 03:47:31 +0000

Hear pianist Dmitri Vorobiev play this poignant Nocturne in B major, Op. 62, No. 1 in a Chopin Project concert performance.

Here’s how it’s described in the 1905 book A Handbook to Chopin’s Works, by George C. Ashton Johnson:

You can read the entire book on Google Docs here.

The Chopin Currency – March 4, 2008

bkr — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 01:45:00 +0000

Chopin News, Previews, Rants, and Reviews:

New award recognizes contribution to the arts
Mississauga News – Ontario, Canada

Some true Chopin 2010 Information…

“Hollywood has its Oscars and Mississauga has its Freddys.
Mayor Hazel McCallion accepted the first Freddy in honour of the contribution she has made to the arts in Mississauga and Canada at a special celebration of composer and pianist Frederick Chopin’s 198th birthday yesterday at the John Paul II Polish Cultural Centre on Cawthra Rd. Greg Glista, the Mississauga resident who is coordinating the fundraising for the week-long Chopin Festival that will be held in Mississauga in 2010 for the composer’s 200th birthday, told The News, “we decided to make our fundraising different and exciting,” by inaugurating the Freddys.

“We named the award after Frederick Chopin, and we were looking to honour someone who has made a significant contribution to the arts.”

Tina Torlone gives a vocal presentation of the works of Frederick Chopin yesterday at a celebration of the composers 198th birthday at the John Paul II …
See all stories on this topic

Cheap Shots

A student-newspaper columnist’s suggestion for “an hour’s worth of music that will change your life,” puts Our Man Fredyryk cheek-by-jowl with The Beatles, Albert King, Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix et al…

Henderson State University Oracle – Arkadelphia,AR,USA
5:59 – “Nocturne in C sharp Minor, Op 48 No 1″ by Frederic Chopin. Musical mastery embodied, Frederic F***ing Chopin. Does that really need any further …
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Chopin in the YouTubeOSphere:

Is it just Yr Hmble Edtr’s impression or are there suddenly a lot more audio-only “video” postings on YouTube? Witness a sudden spate of uploads of pieces recorded by Alfred Grünfeld (1852-1924), Grünfeld was the first pianist of significance (excluding Brahms’s rather opaque 1889 cylinder) to make any kind of recordings, which he commenced in 1899.

He left recordings of works by Bach, Chopin, Schumann, Grieg, Debussy, Liszt, Brahms and others; but Grünfeld was known primarily as a provider of light entertainment music in Vienna, and his arrangements of Strauss’s music are his most famous and enduring legacy.

Alfred Grünfeld (1852-1924): Chopin – Mazurka in B min op.33
By rss@youtube.com (d60944)
He left recordings of works by Bach, Chopin, Schumann, Grieg, Debussy, Liszt, Brahms and others; but Grünfeld was known primarily as a provider of light entertainment music in Vienna, and his arrangements of Strauss’s music are his most …
YouTube :: Tag // him – http://youtube.com/rss/tag/+him.rss

Mazurka in C-sharp minor, Op. 6, No. 2

bkr — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 03:25:59 +0000

As Chopin Project Artistic Director Arthur Greene heads off to Novi Sad, Serbia, to judge and perform in the Isidor Bajic Memorial Competition, he leaves us a taste of his masterful Chopin interpretation with this performance of the Mazurka in C-sharp minor, Op. 6, No. 2.

Arthur Greene plays this Mazurka with its mysterious opening, “a song so sad, heartfelt, naive, diversified and caressing.”

Take a look at this fascinating University of Chicago site with digital images of Historic Scores of the Op. 6 Mazurkas, dating from 1832-1850.

Love the Chopin Mazurkas? Read a fuller description of them on the Pianosociety.com website…

Waltz in A minor, Op. 34, No. 2

bkr — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 05:32:56 +0000

Chopin’s third waltz has been called a “piece full of melancholy, gloom and grief, expressed in mournful simplicity.”

Though, according to the Vancouver Chopin Society,

The composer Stephen Heller related that Chopin called this slow (Lento) waltz his favorite. When Heller told the Pole that he, too, loved it best, Chopin immediately invited him for lunch at a fashionable cafe. Frederick Niecks wrote of this piece, “The composer evidently found pleasure in giving way to this delicious languor, in indulging in these melancholy thoughts full of sweetest, tenderest loving and longing.”

Hear pianist Polina Khatsko play this poignant Waltz in A minor, Op. 34, No. 2 in a Chopin Project live performance at the University of Michigan’s Britton Recital Hall.

Impromptu in A-flat, Op. 29 No. 1

bkr — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 22:20:43 +0000

Today the Chopin Project spotlight falls on Russian-born Michigan pianist Olga Kleiankina, performing the First Impromptu (in A-flat, Op. 29, No. 1) by Chopin. By its very title “Impromptu” is supposed to mean just that — just a perky, playful little ditty that Fryderyk would dash off at the keyboard without a lot of forethought or consideration. The reality is, of course, anything but that! Chopin’s Impromptus are eternally popular, and devilishly difficult to pull off. Olga Kleiankina adds, “I felt a lot of pressure preparing for these concerts and was more than a little anxious. But the audiences were very warm, and it turned out to be such a pleasure. Even though I didn’t happen to play any major works, (many of them were almost unknown, in fact!), I came to love all my pieces, and I felt the audience did too. Even though they were miniatures, I felt that each one was perfectly organized from the very inside – in a way, a microcosmos….part of the transcendental world of Chopin’s imagination.”

Hear pianist Olga Kleiankina play this Impromptu in A-flat, Op. 29, No. 1 before an appreciative Ann Arbor audience.

And read more about the Impromptus on Chopinmusic.net

Variations in A Major, “Souvenir de Paganini” KK 1203

bkr — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 19:48:24 +0000

This rare bit of Chopiniana was supposedly written after violin virtuoso Niccolo Paganini came through Warsaw in the summer of 1829, a concert we know that Chopin attended. A month later he graduated from the Higher School of Music in Warsaw, where a teacher wrote, “Chopin, Fryderyk: third-year student, amazing capabilities, musical genius.”

Hear pianist Dmitri Vorobiev play these unusual Variations in a Chopin Project concert performance.

Etude in A minor, Op. 10, No. 2

bkr — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 17:46:25 +0000

The world of music had never before known any etudes as original, as musical, or as difficult. — Frank Cooper

This is one of the best-known (and arguably, the most difficult!) of the set of twelve etudes Chopin dedicated to Franz Liszt. The Etudes were published in a single volume in 1833, when Chopin was 23, although four of them are supposed to have been completed as early as 1829.

“Etude” literally means “study” or “exercise,” which is especially apparent in this particular work, which is designed to strengthen the “weaker” (that is, the third, fourth, and fifth) fingers of the right hand. But Chopin doesn’t stop there: the thumb and index fingers have to play the accompanying chords to the dizzying melody going up and down the keyboard on those “weak” fingers.

Just to underscore the technical nature of this Etude, Chopin even takes a page from the J.S. Bach playbook and indicates the fingering – note by note — of the almost 800 notes in this piece!

Hear pianist Xiaofeng Wu perform Chopin’s tricky Etude in A minor, Op. 10, No.2 in concert.

Some other links to Chopin Etudes, courtesy of Wikipedia:

The Ultimate Chopin Etudes Discography from Eternal Chopin Etudes Space
Study Guide, Recordings and Sheet Music from Chopin Music
Sheet music available in .pdf or LilyPond format, from Mutopia.

Three Ecossaises, Op. 72

bkr — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 15:19:41 +0000

Arthur Greene:

“In Warsaw, when Chopin was growing up, the social scene was extremely active, and anyone who wasn’t sick would go to dance parties almost every night. And the star of these events was usually Chopin, because he was both a great dancer himself – and he played for all of the other dancers. He would usually improvise at one of these events . . . sitting at the piano and playing for hours, coming up with mazurkas, waltzes, and ecossaises. (pron “eh-koh-SAY”) Nobody dances ecossaises anymore, but these are the types of dances that Chopin would have improvised at a party, and if he really liked it, he’d then go home and write it down.”

Hear Arthur Greene perform Chopin’s Three Ecossaises, Op. 72 (1826)

Download sheetmusic for Three Ecossaises, Op. 72 by Fryderyk Chopin

Barcarolle in F-sharp minor, Op. 60

bkr — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 03:24:35 +0000

This is one of the last pieces that Chopin played in public. The excellent notes from the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s website set the stage:

When in 1846 Frederic Chopin (1810-1849) completed the Barcarolle, the last work of its relatively large size to come from his pen, he was already laid low by the fatal illness that three years later would take his life. He must have had deep affection for the piece, for he included it on the program of a concert he gave in Paris, February 16, 1848, his last appearance in his loved adopted city. Reports of the event tell of this physically depleted man unable to play much above the level of pianissimo even in the Barcarolle’s most expansive sections, a depressing experience for his many friends in the audience.The Barcarolle is the single work of its type in his catalog, which is not surprising considering the limitations imposed by the necessity to maintain a “boat” accompaniment and to invent suitably artless – gondoliere – melodies. In light of these specific guidelines, Chopin has created a composition of remarkable continuity and diversity having, in this temperate context, unexpected dramatic intensity in a soaring climax. (Sudden storm on the Venice canal?) Read more of the notes here.

The Vancouver Chopin Society also has an interesting perspective of the performance challenges of this piece, along with some recording recommendations:

“…It has been the despair of many fine artists, being difficult to interpret successfully. It is easy to sound affected, as does [Claudio] Arrau, or nervous, as does [Vladimir] Horowitz, or too plain, as did [Walter] Gieseking. Chopin must have been its ideal interpreter… The Barcarolle displays Chopin’s ornamental genius in full bloom. Ravel wrote, “Chopin was not content merely to revolutionize piano technique. His figurations are inspired. Through his brilliant passages one perceives profound, enchanting harmonies. Always there is the hidden meaning which is translated into poetry of intense despair. . . . The Barcarolle is the synthesis of the expressive and sumptuous art of this great Slav.”

Hear Maxim Mogilevsky perform Chopin’s Barcarolle in F-sharp minor, Op. 60

Read the Wikipedia definition of Barcarolle
Find more recordings
More publishing information

Chopin’s First Piece

bkr — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 22:55:14 +0000

“The very first piece on the program is a piece that Chopin wrote when he was seven years old. It’s very typical of the music that was being written at that time in Warsaw…a little Polonaise…with even a little virtuosic flourish in it. But Chopin was too young to write the notes down on the page..his father wrote it for him. He had probably written some things before this, but this is the first surviving piece that we have.” — Arthur Greene.

Hear Arthur Greene perform the Polonaise in G minor – Chopin’s first piece

Publishing Information from Pianopedia

Download the score from the Werner Icking Archive

Watch “Charlie” (5 yrs 11 months) play it on YouTube

Welcome to the Chopin Project!

bkr — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 13:00:48 +0000

Experience the musical life of Fryderyk Chopin through his complete works for solo piano: from his earliest surviving work, a polonaise written at age 7, through his last mazurka penned in 1849.

The Chopin Project – the Back Story

bkr — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 00:29:18 +0000

The Chopin Project began as an ambitious live-concert-and-symposium series at the University of Michigan’s acclaimed School of Music, Theatre & Dance devoted to exploring the entirety of Fryderyk Chopin’s works for solo piano: Through a series of nine concerts at Britton Recital Hall, students from the piano studio of renowned teacher and performer Arthur Greene presented a complete traversal of Chopin’s works: from his earliest surviving work, a polonaise written at age 7, through his last mazurka penned in 1849. A complete list of participants in the U of M Chopin Project can be found here.

The applause for the acclaimed concerts (check out the blog comments here) had barely died away when Arthur Greene and his top students went into the studio to capture their insightful Chopin interpretations for the Digital Age for Block M Records. For the first time ever, all 129 compositions – the complete solo piano works of Chopin – will be available for download via the iTunes music store, this site, and a number of other online destinations.

But we didn’t stop there. The Chopin Project is really just beginning. We want to share all the resources and the research that went into the recitals, pre-concert talks, and symposia, and add a whole lot more besides: Our goal to create a global online resource for all things connected to the unique, magical, and captivating world of Chopin and the piano. Research, commentary, program, notes, audio, video, even musical scores…we want the Chopin Project to be your “one-stop shop” for considering all Chopin things.

That means we need your help! Your ideas, suggestions and contributions will really make the Chopin Project site “sing.” So bookmark us and explore, discover, and savor the genius of Chopin’s timeless creations.

After playing Chopin, I feel as if I had been weeping over sins that I had never committed, and mourning over tragedies that were not my own. — Oscar Wilde

The Chopin Project is proudly presented by Frederick Slutsky Arts, exclusive representatives for pianist Arthur Greene and other acclaimed performing, visual, and creative artists.