Plays Chopin-Vol. 1

Plays Chopin-Vol. 1

Editorial Reviews
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Benno Moiseiwitsch's 1947 performance of Chopin's 24 Preludes (also reissued on Testament) and his 1938-1947 recordings of the same composer's Four Ballades are among the best on disc. These Ballades, which are not to be confused with Moiseiwitsch's weak remakes for EMI at the end of the 1950s, are real treasures. Only the F Major seems to have been reissued on CD before, and I cannot remember any LP reissues (at least in the U.S.) for the G minor and A-flat Ballades. As for the F Minor Ballade, it was never released in the first place. Because of an almost undetectable lapse, Moiseiwitsch wanted to redo the Ballade. And by the time he was back in the studios to record the Ballades almost 15 years later, both he and EMI seem to have forgotten entirely about the earlier effort, issued here for the first time.

These performances occupy a place near that of Cortot's as the most important versions of the Ballades recorded in the pre-LP era. They consolidate the position of Moiseiwitsch as one of the most important pianists of the first half of the 20th century. The G Minor Ballade, played with unusual rhythmic freedom, is heartbreaking. In the A-flat Ballade, the inner lines are shaped with spontaneity but also with close attention to the music's contrapuntal structure--this is Chopin that comes closer to Bach than usual. Moiseiwitsch lays out the epic narrative sweep of the F Major and F Minor Ballades without neglect of their tragic details. Their ferociously difficult codas, played with miraculous ease, achieve all the urgency the music requires. In the Preludes, he does not attempt to make each seem part of a greater whole. But he captures the caprice of each prelude and conveys a sense of excitement, which is as important to Chopin's music as structure. --Stephen Wigler

Plays Chopin-Vol. 1, Music, Benno Moiseiwitsch, Classical Artists

Plays Chopin-Vol. 1

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