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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
The performances of the pieces in this album are one of the greatest ever one can get.
In terms of Chopin interpretation, Pollini is about the most anti-salon and anti-sentimental interpretor: his are 'guns buried in flowers', as Schumann once famously described Chopin's compositions.
Sentimentality isn't necessarily a bad thing if the sentiments are rightly echoed. The result of the high-strung approach yields as much to sentimentality as to intelligent musicality, surprisingly in this recording.
The most unfortunate news about this set is that the bit-image processing technique is inadequate to remake the depth and breadth of the sound in the Vienna Musikeverin as captured on vinyl when this album was first issued.
There is another version on SACD that presumably does better in terms of accoustics, and one would only wish that DG would re-issue the SACD version of this wonderful classic performance.
In terms of Chopin interpretation, Pollini is about the most anti-salon and anti-sentimental interpretor: his are 'guns buried in flowers', as Schumann once famously described Chopin's compositions.
Sentimentality isn't necessarily a bad thing if the sentiments are rightly echoed. The result of the high-strung approach yields as much to sentimentality as to intelligent musicality, surprisingly in this recording.
The most unfortunate news about this set is that the bit-image processing technique is inadequate to remake the depth and breadth of the sound in the Vienna Musikeverin as captured on vinyl when this album was first issued.
There is another version on SACD that presumably does better in terms of accoustics, and one would only wish that DG would re-issue the SACD version of this wonderful classic performance.
Format:Audio CD
To my shame it is only recently that I got around to acquiring this disc having been aware of it for a long time and what a revelation it turned out to be! We all know that Pollini has an exceptional technique but the power of this disc comes from how that equipment is deployed on these familiar pieces. It is as if Pollini set out to capture not simply the dancelike and nationalistic qualities of the music, but more importantly the struggles and pain behind the aspirations of the Polish nation. No ethereal or misty romanticism is on show here rather we are given piano playing of drama, passion and huge authority with each of the seven pieces shown to be part of a whole as opposed to individual showpieces. With infinite subtle shadings of light and dark, dramatic contrasts of tempi and the abilty to switch from drama to the meditative in a thrice these accounts are both thrilling and convincing. The recording is superb: full, rich and tremendously alive in the best traditions of 1970's DG analogue recordings. All collectors will have their favourites in this repetoire and Arthur Rubinstein is an essential reference point, but this recording is truly exceptional and deserves a place in every collection of Chopin or great piano playing. Quite simply it makes you listen afresh to the Polish master.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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13 reviews
17 of 20 people found the following review helpful
exceptional intensity
6 Jan 2006
Format:Audio CD
I could not disagree with the opinion of 'a music fan' (see below) more. Unlike, say, the mazurkas, which must be played a clear sense of their unlying dance rhythms, or even the composer's own earlier works in this genre, Chopin's 7 mature Polonaises are epic pianistic tone-poems expressing his Polish nationalism. The 4 minor key polonaises in particular have a demonic ferocity which Pollini makes the most of. His playing of the second Polonaise in Eb minor, with his very rhythmically free opening, is one of the most compelling things I have ever heard. The fourth in c-minor is equally darkly intense.
The two famous major key polonaises are given mighty readings too. Highly recommended.
The two famous major key polonaises are given mighty readings too. Highly recommended.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
A referential collection.
12 Aug 2009
Format:Audio CD
Okay, there are people who think that the entire collection here is laborous to the ears.
That has more to do with the compositions themselves, as well as the sound engineering than with the performances.
The No. 6 Polonaise Op. 53 was recorded on EMI's 1968 recording too. Compare the sound engineering, and an immediate difference surfaces.
As to the performances themselve, actually in this DG collection Pollini opted for a slightly slower and more expansive tempo than in the 1968 EMI recording. But the sound there was much cleaner, much less fuss over the 'vibrato' as does in this DG recording.
While the more vibrant sound in the pianoforte works well in many piano pieces, for an entire collection of heroic outbursts as in Chopin's entire set of Polonaises, arguably some tender ears would find them tiring.
As for the interpretation and performances, I find absolutely nothing in them to fault. Long gone are the salon days for Chopin's masterpieces.
If people long for those willowy stuff, turn to Lang Lang or Yundi Li for contemproary 'fulfilment'.
For the best modern compilation of an entire disc of Chopin Polonaises, this set definitely is of full referential value.
That has more to do with the compositions themselves, as well as the sound engineering than with the performances.
The No. 6 Polonaise Op. 53 was recorded on EMI's 1968 recording too. Compare the sound engineering, and an immediate difference surfaces.
As to the performances themselve, actually in this DG collection Pollini opted for a slightly slower and more expansive tempo than in the 1968 EMI recording. But the sound there was much cleaner, much less fuss over the 'vibrato' as does in this DG recording.
While the more vibrant sound in the pianoforte works well in many piano pieces, for an entire collection of heroic outbursts as in Chopin's entire set of Polonaises, arguably some tender ears would find them tiring.
As for the interpretation and performances, I find absolutely nothing in them to fault. Long gone are the salon days for Chopin's masterpieces.
If people long for those willowy stuff, turn to Lang Lang or Yundi Li for contemproary 'fulfilment'.
For the best modern compilation of an entire disc of Chopin Polonaises, this set definitely is of full referential value.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Exceptional Chopin
31 July 2008
Format:Audio CD
Pollini's disc of Chopin's polonaises has appeared in Grammophone's and Penguin's cd guides as the definitive recording of these narratives of Polish history, culture, and emotion. In response to a writer's claim that Pollini's tempi varies too much to accompany dancers, I doubt seriously that Chopin envisioned anyone actually doing so to a performance of these pieces. They are much too complex for that purpose. What Pollini offers here is his superlative technique and intense, emphatic, and yes, analytical interpretations. His playing of the eb minor and c minor polonaises is incredibly atmospheric in their ominous openings, but become intense psychological studies which Pollini relates with "magesterial command" (Penguin Guide). Most critics and musicians place the f# minor polonaise as the most demanding interpretavily as well as technically. I cannot say anything other that the pianist is mesmerizing and astounding. One can same the same of his playing of the Ab, the most famous of these pieces. I have lived with this recording for some 20+ years and have studied/played the first four polonaises in undergrad and graduate school and still hear this as a timeless account of these pieces. At times, I do wish Deutsche Grammophon had given him a warmer sound; as with other Pollini recordings, the microphones are close...perhaps too much so. Nevertheless, this is a superlative account of Chopin's polonaises, recollections, musings, and homages to his homeland.
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