What wonderful creations these are from the master of the piano, only his Etudes trump his Nocturnes, they contain some of my most favourite music of all time, here Barenboim presents these 21 pieces as soft evening lullabies, he's slightly slow, and he's slightly quiet, but this befits the music on offer, i have heard others who strike up a more dramatic interpretation, as if these pieces are the stuff for virtuoso wizards, there's drama aplenty, and my only wish is that Barenboim would in fact extend his extremes a little further, it would add to the sheer black and whiteness of things, rather Barenboim mixes things into shades of grey, this is only a slight quibble, he really is a master of Chopin, i played this set in 2010 [21st May 2010], a different front cover, but still the same music.
Daniel Barenboim is Argentinian, he's now 69 years old, he holds several citizenship's, and i believe he now lives in Germany, he recorded this album in 1981, the front cover is a painting by Otto Modersohn entitled 'Mondnacht Im Tuefelsmoor', literally translated 'MoonNight In Devil's Moor', it's a lovely painting, couched in darkness and mystery, the whole thing goes well with the right half of the booklet in purple, well laid out lettering too, a great visual product.
All of theses Nocturnes were superb, but if i were to pick the very best they would be 3-4, 8, 14 & 17-18, and i re-listening to these six, the gem of the bunch is Nocturne 4 [Op15/1], when i first delved into Chopin's Nocturnes, this quickly became a favourite of mine, but others were to follow, 7, 10 & 11 for instance, before finally settling for Nocturne 8 as my all time favourite, Nocturne 4 is different than the usual, its gentle and bright playing is a breath of fresh air, a lovely easy going tune, the mini trills [0:32-0:34] sound so innocent, as if the piece was made as a lullaby for a child, however like most Nocturnes, they can have a stormy central section [1:28-2;29], and here's where Barenboim lets go, changing from F Major to F Minor, there's anger and extra volume, but it's only a minute and it's blown over, and the opening returns, and those mini trills excite again [3:03-3:05], and the piece ends ever so gently.
Here's Barenboim playing Nocturne 4 [Op15/1] on YouTube.
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