GREAT RECORDINGS phase 16

CHOPIN: Préludes · Impromptus
BARCAROLLE · BERCEUSE
Alfred Cortot

3 61541 2 (Angel: 3 61542 2)
Recorded 1933, 1934 & 1949;
Mono/ADD
69 minutes

Back >>

‘For many years I have considered Cortot to be the greatest interpreter of the Chopin Préludes and this recording certainly confirms this opinion. The disc also contains the classic account of the Impromptus, also recorded in the early 1930s. Marvellous performances of the Barcarolle and Berceuse from 1949 complete the recital.’
(The Gramophone)
Diapason d’Or, France

As Bryce Morrison says in his note for this reissue of famous recordings of Chopin: ‘Like all true artists, the Swiss-born French pianist and conductor Alfred Cortot (1877–1962) was unique. His performances were indelibly stamped with their own inimitable brilliance and sensitivity. Under his hands the familiar became new-minted as he somehow restored the youth and first glory to great works of art.’

This single disc of newly remastered recordings features the great pianist in performances that are generally agreed to be his finest for the gramophone of four of Chopin’s major and most popular works: the 25 Préludes, the 4 Impromptus, the Barcarolle and the Berceuse.

These 1933–4 and 1949 recordings show Cortot at the height of his powers, ‘inspired to penetrate to the very heart and elixir of Chopin’. The technique may be erratic, the inaccuracies proverbial yet, paradoxically, no more brilliant or liberated performances exist.