Alfred Cortot plays Chopin Etudes Op.25 (1942 recording)
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- Опубліковано 20 сер 2024
- While Alfred Cortot's legendary 1933 cycle of the Chopin Etudes Op.10 (and 1934 account of the Etudes Op.25) have been regularly released over the course of the many decades since their first publication, the pianist's 1942 traversal of both books of Etudes has been less available.
Recorded at the Studio Albert in Paris on November 2 and 4, 1942, this later cycle was released on 78rpm discs at the time and then on a French HMV LP in the 1950s, but were rarely available outside of France or anywhere after that time. They first came to wider attention when they were included in a 1990s 6-CD set produced by EMI France featuring a great many of Cortot's Chopin recordings.
At the time, critics found them less interesting than Cortot's more known cycle - and certainly, the poor transfers and quick fade-outs after each short work didn't do much to warm the listener to these readings. However, upon closer examination, one can appreciate that Cortot is in fact in remarkably fine form in these accounts, in some cases playing with more precision and just as much fire as in his performances from almost ten years earlier.
Instantly recognizable are the élan, elegance, refinement, and nobility of Cortot's playing: fluid phrasing, a singing tone at all dynamic shadings (and even in rapid works), creative voicing, and the pianist's inimitable rubato are all on full display.
In both 1942 and '43 the pianist not only re-recorded the Etudes but also the Preludes and Waltzes; less known is the fact that he recorded all of the Polonaises and Scherzi, which he did not record at any other time and pressings of which have not been found (one certainly hopes that copies will be located).
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0:00 Aeolian Harp
2:02 Bees
3:24 Horseman
5:06 Paganini
6:36 Wrong Note
9:21 Thirds
11:17 Cello
15:44 Sixths
16:49 Butterfly
17:50 Octave
20:54 Winter Wind
24:26 Ocean
This is the best op 25 I have ever heard, wow. The voicing and phrasing are just amazing, I wish more performers would play the etudes like this.
Many people think that these names are given by Chopin, whereas they are given by an unknown pianist.
@@OuaghlaniAlaa Really👀😲 ?
In this way Paganini isn't it
It is really wonderful performance)
One of the rare times I hear the melodic line singing nicely in the winterwind etude
I've never heard No.12 "Ocean" played like this. How clear and powerful, but also warm that melody line is, breathtaking.
My God,this set is simply astonishing,I just cannot get enough listens!! Nobody plays the Etudes with such poetry and passion,in each and every piece he is such a great story-teller that "simple" studies become great poems!!!
For me this is the best version ever,thank you so much for posting this jewel!!!
Many greetings!
Sergio
The occupation era recordings were splendid!
I'd bought the two Etude and the Prelude sets, three in all, and they all had never been played. They were French pressings with likewise issuance numbering.
The playbacks from those pristine discs were shattering, and especially so were certain of the Preludes, which in this survey are not present, unfortunately.
The famous collector, commenter, raconteur and piano/pianists expert of San Diego, Harry L. Anderson did not even possess any!
Obviously and for good reason, they were never available here. Perhaps they only ever were in France and Germany?
Sadly (oh yeah!) needing cash at that moment, I sold all three to Robert F. Commagère, of Genesis Records, Santa Monica. Any who might have access to that collection, might possibly avail themselves of them.
I've always longed to hear a remastered recording of his Op 25 no 1 (either this version or the 1934 version). Even just hearing the top line clearly, it sounds fabulous.
Thank you very much for uploading this ...
Cortot rules in Chopin, extra notes and all ... musical feeling is starting to come back into piano ... I won't name names ... but Cortot defines it ...
BEAUTIFUL PIANO PLAYING ! I LOVE CHOPIN 💚😘🎶💟
The first three are quite wonderful...
They sure are... I still love the entire set. Strengths and weaknesses in both versions. Sometimes it's nice to hear different wrong notes than the more familiar readings ;-)
Alfred Cortot: no one plays more wrong notes and no one plays more right notes.
Bravo Al
Una esecuzione storica di pregevole fattura !
very refined, indeed!
o my good Im schosked
Two geniuses !!!!!
Bellísimo!!!! Como resalta notas de una manera tan sutil y artística! Un genio
The label Dal Segno has a “Masters of the Piano Roll series”. In there, you can hear Cortot playing even better and with perfect sound quality. It sounds like a 21st century recording, as it was taken from the original piano cilindres.
Incredible how standards have changed, largely due to technology improvements. This recording, this performance, was riddled with mistakes. So many errors and yet he is considered one of the greatest pianists of his generation. Because he was able to play these etudes mostly correctly, this performance is considered acceptable. Yet today, none of these performances would have made a final commercial recording. And that wouldn't be a problem, because it's cheap to record a performance. Thousands of people record their performances and post them to UA-cam and other venues because technology has improved greatly. However in Cortot's time, a commercial recording was very expensive. The producers simply couldn't do a re-take; they had to accept whatever the pianist played.
It's not just technology improvements, it's the very idea of what a performer should do that changed. If you take even the most famous performers of the pre-WWII era, even the most technically capable of them probably wouldn't go far in the 21st century piano competitions.
@@w.j.m.91 Listen to Cortot's etude recordings from the 1920s :)) He's too old here
@@w.j.m.91 Have you listened to Rachmaninoff? He has good technique, no?
Big dilemna on Op 25 no 1 the aeolian harp etude. First let me say that I can play this piece with all notes on the score so i know what Cortot is doing.. He has taken the score as a suggestive canvas and is not playing most arpegiated notes below the right hand little finger. He is relying on only the left hand arpeggios to fill the soundscape. If like me you've learned the piece you have those notes in your ear and can tell what is missing but the public won't know. That is almost 50% of the score missing.
Dropping these notes (which are most of the difficulty of the piece) makes it possible for him to finely phrase and rubato the melody line that is on the pinky finger and to play the piece at the tempo notated by the period publisher (more on that coming). It's clear that the marked tempo (no matter who wrote it) if observed makes it impossible for any living or historical pianist to play a musical rendition of all the notes in this study. To play at that alleged tempo, one has to drop almost half the right hand notes out like Cortot is doing which can still produce a musically satisfying poetic piece. The better alternative in my view (and i am a fan of Cortot not taking it on him as all recorded pianists do this) is to offer more of the beautiful polytones this etude has to offer in the double arpegios from both hands at a slower tempo with necessarily less possibility to phrase the top note at the marked dynamics. This second approach is also in line with the goal of an Etude which is to learn and overcome difficulties not skip them by dropping notes. Playing the etude like Cortot (and all other recorded pianists) defeats the technical benefits this piece has to offer to the piano student. Did he first learn it with all the notes at a slower tempo, then did a drastic "haircut" to bring it to marked tempo. Maybe.
Of course all this dilemma comes from the unrealistic tempo marked on the score that forces the pianist to drop notes but i find that approach unfaithful to the composition. Cortot gets away with a beautiful rendition but he is consequently playing a much simplified version of this etude. Is he justified by the tempo marking ? To my knowledge there are only six surviving manuscripts of Chopin's etudes : Op 10 no 3,5,6,8,9,10. None has a tempo marking. Yet all published Chopin etudes have each a tempo marking, so they were added on first or later commercial publications. Who decided them ? Was is Frederic Chopin ? We'll never have that answer but it's clear that many of these etudes (but not all) require a "shaving or dropping" notes to approach the tempi (and even that is very difficult but at least possible). Often these tempi are not just very fast but faster than a tempo for best sounding purely musically speaking. So what gives ? Chopin lived in a time were pianists composers were fiercely competitive and battling for top ranking number. It's conceivable that Chopin agreed to these tempo markings (or majored them by +20%) as a way to rob other pianists from saying they "mastered" and dominated his etudes which would be a slap to his face. In that way, other pianists were always kept humble having to assume the great Chopin technique was superior to theirs. Yes it mattered, reputation was (and still is) everything. Remember that (major point) there existed no recordings to verify playability claims and while Chopin seemed to have performed some Op 10 studies in his passage in Germany in his early youth (R. Schumann), I have never come across a program or correspondence indicating he ever performed any of them in France. Although in one occasion he comments on Liszt performing one his etude (and he does not say which one). His etudes were very successful commercially so that he published a second book (Op. 10 then 25) giving an idea of the quantity of rival pianists battling for fame. Also think that no pianist would have dared to included his studies in a public performance if the tempo marking on the score said he was not ready for it. That could have been a clever strategy to protect himself from his own compositions benefiting the fame of rivals.
The musical critic would never let a recording pianist get away recording these etudes with a different approach than to prioritize tempo foremost because a slower tempo is immediately noticeable but dropping notes and playing faster with pedaling is not noticeable by 99.99% of people (critics included).
As a pianist myself not being tied to critics to make a living, I can play these etudes musically with all the notes at a realistic tempo and i like to think that probably would get a wink from Chopin himself ;)
7:02 Как необычно!
Grande Cortot
"Cello" 11:17
I have never heard these études played like this ! And it was during the nazi occupation and the Vichy régime ...
I just heard Geiseking in op.25 no.1 and 2 and was amazed ! That German could make music but another Nazi a female left the most amazing Appasionata I have ever heard she weaves a spell ! no.3 is very interesting here the lines and pedalling are totally new compared to 1933 . He never misses a note in no.4 a minor.He must have specialized in these Etudes ! I'd like to find some of his programmes ! I can't imagine Cortot in the outward and vigorous Polonaises.I need to hear his 2 Sonatas again ..
Who is "She"?
J have in my brain studies of Chopin by Cortot since j was a teenager version 1933 and November 1942 at London ; j listened all pianists but Cortot is different it's seems with all pianists op10 -25:are always the same thing
1942.....
Underhuman