Chopin : les Valses; Ravel : Valses Nobles et Sentimentales [Import]

Distinguished American pianist Stephen Kovacevich is best known for his brilliant interpretations of Beethoven's and Brahms' works for solo piano and piano and orchestra (For example, his early 1970s Philips recordings of the Beethoven Piano Concertos are still highly regarded by fans and music critics alike.). He is known not only for his intense technical brilliance, but also for his cantabile-like phrasing, at the keyboard. Much to my surprise he hasn't honed these traits by offering some elegant Chopin recordings for most of his career. However, now Kovacevich has turned his attention once more to Chopin's scores, offering a fine set of Chopin waltzes which are arranged chronologically by their probable dates of composition, not by their published opus numbers. He offers some finely nuanced, refined interpretations of these waltzes; interpretations which can be compared favorably with those of the great Artur Rubinstein, whom Kovacevich acknowledges in the liner notes as an important source of inspiration in his interpretations of both Chopin's and Ravel's scores. Indeed, he acknowledges Rubinstein's great love and affinity for these two sets of waltzes; a sterling acknowledgement that comes across musically in Kovacevich's own elegant performances of these works. Hopefully this is merely the first of a long-awaited series of new Chopin recordings from one of our finest contemporary pianists.

This is a truly brilliant and splendidly played set of Chopin's Waltzes, bettered only by those of Lipatti and Rubinstein. However, the sound on this set is much better if that's your thing. I must admit that until recently the only Kovacevich material I owned was his Beethoven concertos. I have since discovered that he has a wealth of very fine recordings, from Grieg and Schumann's concertos to the Diabelli Variations (1968) and Beethoven's sonatas. So, thanks to this disc and the above mentioned, I'll be checking more into his recordings from the 60's and 70's especially.