Chopin: Valses

The Hungaroton label has launched an ambitious attempt to record all of Chopin's music in time for the bicentennial of his birth in 1810, with this disc devoted to the composer's 19 waltzes and a trio of écossaises (or Scottish dances, with the little hop at the end of its characteristic rhythmic figure familiar to anyone who has ever danced a schottisch in a country-and-western bar). What distinctiveness there is in Italian-born Hungarian pianist Alex Szilasi's interpretations resides in a pair of factors. One is the use of what is variously described as an "authentic Pleyel piano," "a 2.8-metre-long original Pleyel concert grand," and a "wonderful Pleyel 280 piano," a model that still exists today. The booklet (in English, French, and Hungarian) might profitably have devoted less space to easily available facts about Chopin's waltzes and more to the history and age of the instrument used; the reader does not learn whether it comes from Chopin's time or later. It is an exceptionally attractive instrument whatever its age, with exceptional clarity both in the articulation of individual notes and in revealing the resonances and sustained tones that are so important to Chopin's music. Of course part of the credit for this clarity goes to the pianist, whose talents are well matched to the instrument he plays. The second distinctive quality of these performances is Szilasi's rather cool, modern approach -- not exactly the going thing with Chopin, but consistently thought out in terms of a repertoire of expressive devices. One of these is an attempt to create some distance between Chopin's music and the waltz's origins on the dance floor. If you like to hear a big rhythmic swing in a piece like the Grande Valse Brillante in A flat major, Op. 34/1, Szilasi's interpretation is probably not for you -- he is not exactly cerebral, but he is on the quiet side, and a bit jumpy at times in the Grand Valse Brillante in E flat major, Op. 18. He is at his best in wandering, rather forlorn music like the Waltz for piano in E flat major, KK IVb/10, CT. 223 (track 6). Szilasi's Chopin may be a matter of taste, but pianophiles of any taste are likely to find the music of interest here. ~ James Manheim, All Music Guide