Martha Argerich: The Collection 1

Musical Criticism – London,UK

High words of praise for a remastered and reissued series of Martha Argerich’s original sides for DG – presented in chronological order, dating back to her 1961 debut recording.   The early Argerich is heavily Chopin-centric, to telling effect….

In Argerich’s debut recording…we have what amounts to a manifesto of her astonishing brand of piano playing. A scintillating version of Chopin’s Third Scherzo – have its defining double octaves ever sounded so effortless at such an exacting pace? – is followed by Argerich’s big-boned and passionate Brahms (the two Rhapsodies Op.79). There’s more Chopin in the Barcarolle Op.60, which, along with Ravel’s Jeux d’eau, shows her ability to coax an array of colours from the piano. A furious Prokoviev Toccata and a Liszt finale – the Sixth Hungarian Rhapsody – give a further demonstration of a technique of such thoroughbred robustness that no music seems to hold any fears for it. Restored here is also the original LP cover – it was replaced in 1967 by the better known black and white photo used for the Originals reissue as well as the cover of this box – which helps to remind us just quite how prodigious the young Argerich was (she was only nineteen at the time of the recording).

Although all the recordings here are all well known it’s fascinating to have this opportunity to relive the releases one by one, placing them in the context of Argerich’s far from conventional career. It was not until six years after her debut that her next solo recording – an all Chopin affair – was released. EMI recorded a recital with Argerich in 1965, the year of her triumph at the Warsaw Chopin Competition, but legal reasons prevented this from being released until relatively recently (1999). Common ground between the EMI recording and the next disc in this set, recorded for DG in 1967, comes in the significant form of the Third Sonata, the ‘Heroic’ Polonaise Op.53 and three Mazurkas Op.59. For DG Argerich also included the Polonaise-Fantasie Op.61. Here some of the excessive forcefulness that some have criticised in Argerich’s playing is apparent, most noticeably in the sonata’s opening movement. Jed Distler, who provides brief introductions to all the recordings, writes ‘how Chopin would have reacted to Argerich taking the B minor Sonata first movement’s Allegro maestoso as a veritable Allegro con fuoco is anyone’s guess’ and the effect is an inevitable reduction in the movement’s great lyricism. But by the time we get to the blistering account of the finale, it’s difficult not to have been won over by the sheer force of Argerich’s interpretation.

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Pianist Wang enjoys unpredictable schedule

Schenectady Gazette – Schenectady,NY,USA

When your star pianist (including Martha Argerich!) cancels, who ya gonna call? 21-year old Joyce Yang, it turns out.  And she owes it all to Chopin…

Wang’s maturity as a performer is as much a surprise to her as it is to the many audiences and critics she impresses, she said. Until she was 10, she’d never heard a recording of classical music. Her first CD was of Maurizio Pollini playing Chopin Etudes.

“I had no music in my head. I had no imagination until I came here,” she said.

People at home in China called her a prodigy, but her teachers were always very critical and made sure she had a good technical foundation. That impressed Gary Graffman, who, in 2002, took her on as one of his students at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia.

She graduated this June, which was almost a non-event for her, she said. In the past two years she has barely been at the school because she’s been out giving up to 100 concerts a year. Now, she has to decide where she wants to live or if she wants to live in North America, she said.

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Lang Lang: Virtuoso pianist or ‘flashy’ showman?

Independent – London,England,UK

A preview of the celebrity and controversy surrounding Lang Lang, as he prepares to perform at the Olympic Opening Ceremonies in Tiannenmen Square on Friday  UK daily reveals the early career-molding Chopin influence on the world’s most recognizable Chinese pianist…

He played the complete Chopin études at 13, and won the Tchaikovsky junior competition in Japan with Chopin’s E minor concerto. That work has always meant a lot to him, he says, “though at 13 I was too young to understand the pathos of Chopin’s love for that girl, which she didn’t return. My father told me not to think about the emotional situation, just to think about a beautiful landscape – and about my mother! That worked very well.” Chopin chimes perfectly with what he now describes as his crusade: he’s always trying to reach young audiences, “and Chopin is the perfect composer for that. His music is so universal that even people who don’t like classical music like it.”

Poland Rejects Testing Chopin’s Heart

By admin

From the Current World News blog, Polish officials say “Nevermore!” to the idea of exhuming Chopin’s heart for testing…

Scientists want to see if composer Frederic Chopin — whose heart rests in a Warsaw church, preserved in alcohol since his 1849 death — died of cystic fibrosis instead of tuberculosis, as was thought at the time. But Poland thinks this is no excuse to disturb one of its key relics. “The heart lies in a jar sealed inside a pillar at Warsaw’s Holy Cross Church _ and the only time it has been removed was for safekeeping during World War II.

Before it was returned in 1951, a doctor examined the heart and found it perfectly preserved in an alcohol that many think is cognac. Chopin died in France, where his body is buried, but he asked that his heart be sent to his homeland.

Smack-dab in the middle of Chopin’s Op. 25 Etudes lies this unique and memorable piece that is unlike any other Chopin creation. And one that has generated a considerable amount of ink over the decades.

Sometimes it’s called the “‘Cello Etude,” because the prominent melody is in the left hand, approximating the range of a cello. Others have called it “A Duet between a He and a She.” Or perhaps you prefer “Morbidly Elegaic?” Ballade-like? A Missing Nocturne?

Another school of thought says plainly: It’s an Etude. It’s supposed to help you with perfecting you piano technique. And the technique here is an exquisitely difficult phrasing and balance question – making the left hand carry the melody without being overpowered by the right — when the natural tendency is to go the other way.

Oh, and just to mess you up a little further, the left and right hand are playing quite independent musical lines that need to coincide at key moments.

So, for the final word, let’s transport you back to G.C. Ashton Jonson, author of the 1905 tome A Handbook to Chopin’s Works: (For the Use of Concert-Goers, Pianists, and Pianola Players):

Hear Chopin Project Artistic Director Arthur Greene perform Chopin’s unique Etude in C-sharp Minor, Op. 25, No. 7.

Read the Wikipedia entry here.

Read the Chopinmusic.net entry here.

• Download sheetmusic for Etude in C-sharp minor, Op. 25 No. 7 by Fryderyk Chopin

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.

• Listen to Etude in A minor, Op. 10, No. 2 by Fryderyk Chopin
• Download sheetmusic for Etude in A minor, Op. 10, No. 2 by Fryderyk Chopin