Octo_Russ

Chopin - 21 Nocturnes [Leonskaja]

Here's a new set of Chopin's complete Nocturnes i acquired recently, these have now been re-issued on a double disc Ultima set, but here the 'fatbox' original Teldec issue is so much more desirable, i just love these one inch 'fatbox' sets, they feel chunky in the hand, of real substance, plus this has the excellent original photography on the front [more of that below], i enjoyed Leonskaja's interpretations, even though i feel that she takes things too slow on the whole, there's a degree of drama missing, the Noctunes are like gentle sweet dreams, but many have a turbulent central episode, if you like, a little nightmare in the middle, a degree of agitation and troubling of the spirit, but Leonskaja doesn't quite convince in these extremes.

Elisabeth Leonskaja is Georgian / Russian, she's now 66, and she recorded this work between 1991 and 1992, the front cover photo is really excellent, of Leonskaja holding a leaf, a fairly dark shot, certainly not sunlit, and maybe perfect for a set of Nocturnes at dusk, the greens are especially pleasing.

Well what can i say, certainly no single Nocturne stood out from the pack on this listening, maybe to some degree it's Leonskaja's inability to engage me, these are tremendous creations from Chopin, but i was never on the edge of my seat, it's testament to Chopin that i still enjoyed listening to these discs, Nocturne 10 is one of my favourites, i first fell in love with it listening to a double cassette of Livia Rev playing it, there's drama aplenty, yes Leonskaja plays it too slow, Barenboim is over a minute faster, she hesitates and it loses some of its potency, the intro is too drawn out, but it improves afterward, the main tune is a marvel from Chopin, but there's too many very slight hesitations, which impedes the flow, she plays the central section at more nearer the right pace [2:22-4:10], but the darker tensions elude her, and she just doesn't play loud enough at certain points, there needs to be an ebb and flow, not just of volume, but of rubato too, light and dark seems too grey, and yet regardless there's still so much to enjoy.

Here's Miroslav Kultyshev playing Nocturne 10 [Op32/2] on YouTube.