Evgeni Kissin - Chopin: The Four Ballades, Berceuse, Barcarolle, Scherzo No. 4
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Artist: Evgeni KissinComposer: Frederic Chopin
Performer: Evgeny Kissin
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 1999-05-18
Music Label: RCA
Soundtracks:
- Ballade No. 1, Op.23 In G Minor
- Ballade No. 2, Op.38 In F
- Ballade No. 3, Op.47 In A-Flat
- Ballade No. 4, Op.52 In F Minor
- Berceuse, Op.57
- Barcarolle, Op.60
- Scherzo No. 4, Op.54 In E
Music reviews of Chopin: The Four Ballades, Berceuse, Barcarolle, Scherzo No. 4
Music Review: (-) Transitional Kissin Delivers Reference 2nd Ballade and Berceuse
Rating: 4 Stars
INTRODUCTION: Having looked at some seven other recordings of Chopin's four Ballades--in my view the most perfect condensate of musical and pianistic refinement in the entire piano oeuvre, and hence amongst the musical treasures closest to my heart--we are now moving to my short list of preferred versions, in reversed order: Kissin, Zimerman, Moravec, Ohlsson and Demidenko. What connects the dots between these performers is their sense of measuredness in combination with the ability to bring out the deeper levels of these bottomless masterpieces.
REFERENCES: Demidenko (Chopin: Ballades; Third Sonata); Ohlsson (Garrick Ohlsson - The Complete Chopin Piano Works Vol. 3 - Ballades)
Kissin's 1998 Ballades take up the Chopin thread where his extensive 1993 live Carnegie Hall program left off. His Chopin playing is here as accomplished and assured as ever. However, there are two major changes to be noted: firstly, the good news, there is a bolder and more mature way of painting Chopin's colourful textures; secondly, the bad news, I believe it was about this time that the tendency to substitute youthful spontaneity for mannered effect seeking began to creep into his performances. This highly unfortunate development of Kissin's prodigious playing is only partly noticeable in this release--especially in the Fourth Ballade, Barcarolle and Fourth Scherzo--but was to become a major problem in the subsequent Preludes and Second Sonata disc recorded in 1999.
Moving back to the good news, Kissin gives us a sizzling First Ballade but above all the probably most dramatic account of the Second Ballade in the catalogue. The disparate contrasts between the picturesquely pastoral F-major gondoliera and the stormy A-minor tsunami have never been realised with such abundance of power and vigour. Hence, it's indeed somewhat surprising that the showy Third Ballade find Kissin comparatively tame. The Fourth Ballade sounds never less than masterful in Kissin's hands; however, that introspective and elegiac beauty brought out by Moravec, Demidenko and above all Ohlsson is just not yet an integrated part of the Kissinian toolbox.
Apart from the Second Ballade, the Berceuse is the real keeper on this CD (my kudos to '50cent-haircut', whose review is spot on). The hallucinatory haze conjured up by Kissin is otherworldly (his pianississimo is virtually inhuman!)--making it the greatest version alongside Ohlsson's more lullaby-oriented magic. Both the Barcarolle and Fourth Scherzo sound good but leave an essentially superficial impression.
The RCA/SWR sound is bold and brilliant to match with the pianism--but likewise not always entirely natural. In many ways, this release shows a Kissin in transition. On occasions when he manages to merge the best of his early prodigious spontaneity and later bold maturity--as in the Scriabin Third Sonata and Stravinsky Petrushka Movements of 2004 (Scriabin: Sonata No. 3; Five Preludes; Medtner: Sonata Reminiscenza; Stravinsky: Three Movements from Pétrouchka)--he has no living rival.
TIMINGS: Ballades--9:52, 7:38, 8:00, 11:41; Berceuse--4:44; Barcarolle--8:56; Fourth Scherzo--10:33
Description of Chopin: The Four Ballades, Berceuse, Barcarolle, Scherzo No. 4
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