Customer Reviews

V1 Ignacy Jan Paderewski: Chop

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The customer of 5/30/04 does not point to where one can hear some of the "many false notes" that he mentions. Nor does he say what "total parts" were left out of any Paderewski recordings. If he is referring to Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 10, one section was left out so that the piece would fit on one side of a 78rpm 12 inch recording.(I assume that Customer 5/30/04 is aware of the recording practices of the early 20th Century.)This section is by no means the most difficult part of this Rhapsody.It is amazing how this customer who claims to hear all of those "false notes", fails to mention that the recording of Liszt's Etude de Concert No. 2 in f minor,is not played by Paderewski at all!! It is performed by Benno Moiseiwitch and is concidered to be one of the finest performances of this work. This makes one wonder as to the musical perception and acuity of this individual.By the way,"Hoffman" is spelled Hofmann.
Some comments and observations about Paderewski."What disipline." Igor Stravinsky."Paderewski was an artist who she (Myra Hess) admired most." Myra Hess by Marion McKenna, pg.48. "These performances are faultless,and if he had only allowed these (Nocturnes Op.15,No.1 and 2)to be released,he would still be regarded as one of the supreme interpeters pf Chopin--without reservation." Chopin Playing by James Methuen-Cambell,pg.63. "He is an artist, but I only heard him once.--What I heard I liked.---He is refined and easy and does not appear to pose.---I do not believe that Paderewski's success has anything to do with his hair. He would be just as great an artist without the hair arrangement". Josef Hofmann as reported by Alan Dale,Philadelphia Inquirer:March 13,1898. "They say that he didn't have a big technique,but he did before World War One.Then he lost it. He liked loud playing. My father told me that Paderewski was the best pianist he ever heard. Toscanini always said that he was the best pianist, and that he played the Emperor better that anyone else. There is a letter of Tchaikovsky saying that he went to hear a new pianist in Paris called Paderewski and that he was the greatest of all.---You don't get such a reputation that he had for nothing." Vladimir Horowitz: His Life and Music,pg. 117 by Harold C Schonberg. I could go on and on. Even though Paderewski was no longer the flaming virtuoso that he was prior to World War One,his conceptions of the music that he played continued to evolve and his mastery of tonal colors became ever more evident with the introduction of electrical recording in 1925.

The critic Timothy Managan recently wrote of the late Mstislav Rostropovich,"(he)brought a gravitas to his interpretations that made them into powerful oratory." If there was ever a great orator of the piano, it was Paderewski.

The recordings are fine and the playing is mediocre. He misses notes or total parts(simplification) and there are so many false notes its a shamble. The man was famous, but its pretty obvious he has no control after becoming a concert pianist when he was a full grown adult. If you want a real artist go for Hoffmann, Rachmaninoff, or at least somebody who is remembered for their great playing, not image. I give it a three because of his mediocre playing(one star for the playing and two for the fancy jacket)...

This is the best volume in the Great Pianists of the 20 century series. The playing is a revelation, exquisite, lyrical, and always profound. Each piece is played with a unique sensitivity and disregard for virtuosity. Only having heard of Paderewski, almost as a legend, it is breathtaking to finally behold this "ultimate pianist". It is even more breathtaking, when one realizes every recording was done in one take, years before modern tape editing techniques. (A modern CD of one hour may actually be made from many hours of tapes and remixed, creating marvelous recordings that never really happened, something more like sculpture than musical performance.) The beauty of tone even on these somewhat "hissy" older recordings is a wonder to hear. The Chopin selections makes one seem to hear their beauty again for the first time, more beautiful than any modern recording. The Liszt selections are fantastic. The famous Liszt second rhapsody is done in a lyric non-virtuosic cantabile style that is ravishing with meaning and beauty in every note, a new color every second. It is the ultimate second rhapsody done with pure musicality and avoiding technical excesses. He plays the music, not just Lisztian cadenzas with stuff in between like most modern virtuosos. He makes a beautiful Hungarian tone poem, not a virtuoso exercise in octaves and velocity. Paderewski always strives for beauty of tone and expression and seems to be uninterested in modern pyrotechnics. This is really a must for anyone who loves piano music, a real sojourn back to the days of Liszt and Chopin. Music like it was supposed to be.

I have bought this cd last year and i still listen to it everyday.This is a must to every pianist in the world.