Alfred Cortot
0094636154220
EMI Classics
About the album
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.
