Chopin - Piano Music 'The Poor Sad Angel' [Lugansky]
A really good recital, built around the basic idea of mid period Chopin, opus numbers 49-54, and only three others outside this little cluster, the title comes from Chopin's friend George Sand, in describing Chopin, it's a recital that has a generous 68 minutes of music, and a varied selection of different pieces, i reviewed this disc in my Blog a couple of years ago [28th January 2013].
Nikolai Lugansky is Russian, he's now 43, this was one of his earliest recordings in 1996, the front cover shows a lovely portrait of Lugansky [by Piet Roorda], lots of nice skin tone colours, a good pose, not so sure of the background, the box / lettering is quite good.
This recital caused me to listen to the three Op50 Mazurkas, i find i don't go out of my way to listen to a Chopin Mazurka, and i don't own any complete sets either, so it's only on recitals like these that i actually get to listen to them, i'll have to consider a complete set, probably Luisada / DG, but ultimately on this listen i loved tracks 1-2, 5 & 9 the most, and it was the Ballade 4 that really impressed me, here's my feelings on it,
Ballade 4 [10:50] - In F Minor, a lovely key i'm finding, Chopin's last Ballade, it has the most gentle and beautiful intro [0:00-0:31], before Chopin brings in that gorgeous tune [0:32-2:15], and really caresses it, Lugansky does well here, pacing things so well, building up the intensity afterwards, and the complexity that follows [3:17-3:50], Chopin layers things so well, it's hard to delineate where one lovely idea ends and another starts, after a while you just want to be lost in the music, and forget about sections / barriers, after some angry episodes, Chopin brings in a new level of complexity [7:39-8:14], towards the end there's a build up to a noble release [8:15+], those treble notes are spelled out in loud preciseness, i love the way Chopin throws in some angry dartings up into the treble registers [9:05-9:12], the music then strangely almost comes to a halt, and five gentle notes in slow motion are played [9:28-9:51], before the whole thing explodes into a final rush of notes, i really enjoyed Lugansky's interpretation, he has a real flow to the thing, and can really create an excitement in forte's a great Chopin interpreter.
Nikolai Lugansky is Russian, he's now 43, this was one of his earliest recordings in 1996, the front cover shows a lovely portrait of Lugansky [by Piet Roorda], lots of nice skin tone colours, a good pose, not so sure of the background, the box / lettering is quite good.
This recital caused me to listen to the three Op50 Mazurkas, i find i don't go out of my way to listen to a Chopin Mazurka, and i don't own any complete sets either, so it's only on recitals like these that i actually get to listen to them, i'll have to consider a complete set, probably Luisada / DG, but ultimately on this listen i loved tracks 1-2, 5 & 9 the most, and it was the Ballade 4 that really impressed me, here's my feelings on it,
Ballade 4 [10:50] - In F Minor, a lovely key i'm finding, Chopin's last Ballade, it has the most gentle and beautiful intro [0:00-0:31], before Chopin brings in that gorgeous tune [0:32-2:15], and really caresses it, Lugansky does well here, pacing things so well, building up the intensity afterwards, and the complexity that follows [3:17-3:50], Chopin layers things so well, it's hard to delineate where one lovely idea ends and another starts, after a while you just want to be lost in the music, and forget about sections / barriers, after some angry episodes, Chopin brings in a new level of complexity [7:39-8:14], towards the end there's a build up to a noble release [8:15+], those treble notes are spelled out in loud preciseness, i love the way Chopin throws in some angry dartings up into the treble registers [9:05-9:12], the music then strangely almost comes to a halt, and five gentle notes in slow motion are played [9:28-9:51], before the whole thing explodes into a final rush of notes, i really enjoyed Lugansky's interpretation, he has a real flow to the thing, and can really create an excitement in forte's a great Chopin interpreter.
