Chopin: Nocturnes, Mazurkas, Berceuse, Sonata, Opp. 55-58

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A reliable set of recordings of works written towards the end of Chopin’s life, organised in chronological order. Good recorded sound, with luminous top lines. — BBC Music Magazine, May 2019, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 25th Jan 2019
Catalogue No: 4836475
Label: DG
Length: 53 minutes

Presto Recording of the Week

25th January 2019

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Chopin: Nocturne No. 15 in F minor, Op. 55 No. 1

Work length4:37

$1.10

$1.40

$2.05

Maurizio Pollini (piano)
Recorded: 2018-05-13
Recording Venue: Herkulessaal, Munich

Chopin: Nocturne No. 16 in E flat major, Op. 55 No. 2

Work length4:42

$1.10

$1.40

$2.05

Maurizio Pollini (piano)
Recorded: 2018-05-13
Recording Venue: Herkulessaal, Munich

Chopin: Mazurka No. 33 in B major, Op. 56 No. 1

Work length4:30

$1.10

$1.40

$2.05

Maurizio Pollini (piano)
Recorded: 2018-05-13
Recording Venue: Herkulessaal, Munich

Chopin: Mazurka No. 34 in C major, Op. 56 No. 2

Work length1:40

$1.10

$1.40

$2.05

Maurizio Pollini (piano)
Recorded: 2018-05-13
Recording Venue: Herkulessaal, Munich

Chopin: Mazurka No. 35 in C minor, Op. 56 No. 3

Work length5:41

$1.10

$1.40

$2.05

Maurizio Pollini (piano)
Recorded: 2018-05-13
Recording Venue: Herkulessaal, Munich

Chopin: Berceuse in D flat major, Op. 57

Work length4:29

$1.10

$1.40

$2.05

Maurizio Pollini (piano)
Recorded: 2018-05-13
Recording Venue: Herkulessaal, Munich

Chopin: Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor, Op. 58

Work length27:48

$4.40

$5.60

$8.20

Maurizio Pollini (piano)
Recorded: 2018-05-13
Recording Venue: Herkulessaal, Munich

1. Allegro maestoso

Track length12:24

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$1.40

$2.05

2. Scherzo (Molto vivace)

Track length2:31

$1.10

$1.40

$2.05

3. Largo

Track length7:39

$1.10

$1.40

$2.05

4. Finale (Presto non tanto)

Track length5:14

$1.10

$1.40

$2.05

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Recording of the Week, Maurizio Pollini performs late piano works by Chopin

25th January 2019

The Italian pianist revisits works by Chopin including the Third Piano Sonata, the Berceuse, and the two Nocturnes, op. 55, alongside his first recording of the three Mazurkas, op. 56.

Frédéric Chopin made his name in the high-society salons of his native Poland and, above all, in the vibrant Paris of Eugène Delacroix, Victor Hugo and George Sand. His pieces for solo piano, often technically challenging, always enchanting, are in constant global demand today, especially when brought to life by a performer of Maurizio Pollini’s stature. The 76-year-old Italian musician has been in love with Chopin’s art since

childhood, a passion clear in his critically acclaimed recordings of the composer’s works for Deutsche Grammophon. Maurizio Pollini – Chopin, set for international release on 25 January 2019, embraces a lifetime’s dedication to the composer and complements Pollini’s much praised 2017 album, Chopin – Late Works, opp.59–64.

Maurizio Pollini, “the pre-eminent Chopinist of his generation” (Fanfare), continues his revelatory chronological re-exploration of the Polish master’s late works.

Here are the pianist’s latest thoughts on Opp. 55–58 (1843/4), including the B minor Sonata and Berceuse. “An indispensable album for all devotees of the composer or the pianist” (ResMusica) [review of Pollini’s “Chopin: Late Works”, Opp. 59–64]

"Pollini, explicitly recorded but with air around the instrument, opens with an aristocratic account of the Barcarolle (Chopin at his greatest) and continues with the Opus 59 Mazurkas, from which the A-flat is especially wistful (its endearing melody shaped perfectly) whereas the F-sharp minor is fiery, its knotty decorations made lucid." (Classical Source) [review of Pollini’s “Chopin: Late Works”, Opp. 59–64]

Reviews

May 2019

A reliable set of recordings of works written towards the end of Chopin’s life, organised in chronological order. Good recorded sound, with luminous top lines.

February 2019

This is not Chopin for everyone. Its sternly ascetic qualities abjure any conventional idea of beauty holding sway in contemporary Chopin performance. Those seeking poetry, sensuous contour or variety of affect should look elsewhere. Yet Pollini remains ever the master pianist, a cultivated musician of varied tastes, wide experience and provocative intellect. These qualities alone command our attention.

June 2019

The Op 56 Mazurkas are brilliantly variegated, the first intimate, the second ringing out like church bells, while the Op 55 Nocturnes whisper their secrets. The Berceuse carries the listener inexorably along, its upper two voices perfectly delineated and cantabile. Pollini left us a magnificent Third Sonata in 1986. This is its complement: powerful, impassioned and flowing in the first movement, fleet-fingered in the scherzo and powerful in the finale.

25th January 2019

There’s an assuredness and consummate mastery to his playing that can only come from decades of having performed and loved this repertoire...The closing pages of the sonata, with their dazzling flurry of semiquavers, offer ample proof, if proof were needed, that the old Pollini magic is still very much present and correct.

1st March 2019

The more quiet and pensive Chopin becomes, the better time everyone has — good news, then, for the Op 55 nocturnes, most delicately paced and shaped; not so good for the higher drama of the B minor sonata.

Chopin: Nocturnes, Mazurkas, Berceuse, Sonata, Opp. 55-58

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Recording of the Week, Maurizio Pollini performs late piano works by Chopin