Chopin interpretations, 2025
This Week in Classical Music: February 24, 2025. Chopin interpretations. Frédéric Chopin, one of many best composers of the 19th century, was born on March 1st of 1810. We’ll rejoice him by means of the works of pianists whose anniversaries fall round this date: we’ve been neglecting the interpreters for fairly some time, and this can be a good time to catch up. Most of those pianists are of the older era when Chopin’s piano music was extra well-liked and extra typically performed than it’s in the present day. Their lives coincide with the early period of the recording trade, so the technical high quality of a few of the items we’ll hear in the present day will not be excessive, whereas the musicianship is, even when their strategy could seem very totally different than what we hear in the present day.
We’ll begin with Benno Moiseiwitsch, born February 22nd of 1890 in Odessa (now Odesa), then within the Russian Empire and now in unbiased Ukraine. He began his research in Odessa, then moved to Vienna to check with Theodor Leschetizky and ultimately settled in England. Moiseiwitsch had a flourishing worldwide profession and for some time taught at the Curtis Institute of Music. Right here’s Benno Moiseiwitsch performing Chopin’s Barcarolle, Op. 60. We prefer it loads: the enjoying is elegant, the tone is singing. We don’t know the precise recording date however assume it was made round 1950.
Alexander Brailowsky was additionally born in Ukraine, then a part of Russia, and like Moiseiwitsch, he was Jewish. He was six years youthful (his birthday is February 16th of 1896) and born in Kiev (now Kyiv). After finding out on the Kiev Conservatory, he additionally went to Vienna to take classes from Leschetizky. He then studied with Ferruccio Busoni in Switzerland and ultimately settled in New York whereas getting French citizenship someday later. Brailowsky was identified for his interpretation of Chopin; in 1924 in Paris, he performed 160 of his compositions in six concert events; then in 1938, he repeated the identical program in New York (no established pianist would even contemplate such a programming selection as of late). Right here he’s enjoying Chopin’s Nocturne Op. 9 No. 1. We imagine the recording was made round 1957.
Nikita Magaloff was born in Saint Petersburg on February 21st of 1912 right into a noble Georgian household. His household left Russia in 1918, following the Bolshevik Revolution. He studied on the Paris Conservatory the place he befriended Ravel. Prokofiev additionally lived in Paris throughout that point and gave Magaloff composition classes. Like Brailowsky, Magaloff was a “Chopinist”: he additionally carried out all of the piano music of Chopin in six concert events, but when Brailowsky did it twice, Magaloff did it many instances. Magaloff was a famous trainer, beginning in 1949 with a masterclass he picked up from his good friend, the ailing Dinu Lipatti; Martha Argerich was one among his college students. He married the daughter of the violinist Joseph Szigeti and infrequently carried out with the nice violinist. Right here’s Nikita Magaloff performs Chopin’s Nocturne Op. 9, No. 2. The recording was made in 1974.
Our final pianist is the one one not born within the Russian Empire: it’s Myra Hess. She’s additionally not well-known for her Chopin, though she performed him loads. Hess was born in London on February 25th of 1890. She was identified for her interpretation of Bach and the Viennese classics, and much more so, for the free concert events of classical music she organized throughout WWII on the Nationwide Gallery. Right here is her early recording of Chopin’s Nocturne in F sharp main, Op 15, No. 2. It was made in 1928.
