Classical Music for Aficionados

Chopin loved and played and made his students play the works of JS Bach.

This predestined fate of each chord in Chopin comes from rigorous meditation of Bach written script....

Chopin is greater than what the beauty of his melodies speak about : the human heart... He is a mathematical musical brain genius like Bach...

We feel Bach all along listening Chopin....

Chopin listened the marvellous nocturnes of the great pianist Field with the Bach tutoring, and the rest is history....

Before Chopin there is Field....

Nobody ever written so heartful melodies balancing heart and breathing in this way , Field did this the first...

Chopin listened and with the great tools inherited from Bach transform what the genius playing of Field on the new piano instrument created to more developed strongly written works and not only marvellous inspired almost improvised melodies and chords...

But we must listen to Field to know where Chopin begin using Bach track and to understand what was Chopin debt to Bach...

Whatever the genius is, the greatest geniuses stand on the shoulders of other geniuses back in time....Field is a genius but Chopin is almost a god standing of the shoulders of these  two....


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEUGj9mPg2w

Excellent post!  Beautiful clip as well,  Thank you.

"and and of course a few by Horowitz. I think Chopin was all he played."

Really? What planet do you live on?

A thousand pardons o' watchful one..  Apparently I typed Horowitz, but was thinking Rubinstein.  If you have a problem with Rubinstein, too bad.

We can all be thankful that there is always an "Audiophile" ready and willing to correct all 'errors' made on this Forum.

To answer your question directly:  Earth.   You?

Cheers

Does anyone know the work of American / Dutch pianist Andrew von Oeyen. He is quite well represented on Idagio at the moment with his latest recording on their front pages. It is a recording of Bach and Beethoven with the star being the Appassionata sonata. he has a stunning technique which is put to good use here. He takes the tempo at a fair lick and the result is spellbinding. He also has other recordings on Idagio with a favourite for me of Liszt , with the B Minor Sonata being for me the star again with fast tempos favoured but with due care taken to the slow intervals. On said slow sections he has a beautiful tender side and lovely limpid touch. On the same recording he does the Rigoletto Paraphrase with gorgeous octave glissandos and stunning Chordal playing. I just wish he had room for the Three Petrarch Sonnets as his technique is really suited them.

Frédéric Chopin

CHOPIN  Études

Murray Perahia (piano)
Sony Classical    2001

Notes:
"The word "etude" means "study" - and every one of these studies addresses a specific technical concern, the mastery of which can only benefit a pianist in any other works he or she plays.  And yet the etudes are much more than mere exercises, for their Herculean physical demands are nothing compared to their musical ones.  Even Artur Rubinstein, who played Chopin all over the world for three-quarters of a century, was daunted by the etudes, admitting frankly that he was "scared to death" of them.  "To do the justice is a most difficult task, which I haven't yet had the courage to attempt," he wrote to an admirer in 1962." --Tim Page


A sampling of Op. 10  &  Op. 25.   

12 Etudes, opus 10

No. 3 in E Major "Tristesse"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GU7bY13EcCk

No. 5 in G-Flat Major "Black Keys"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ya8Fm-1tvSY

12 Etudes, opus 25

No. 10 in B Minor "Octave"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmihKi-A59s

No. 11 in A Minor "Winter Wind"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0doWiXaPfhI

No. 12 in C Minor "Ocean"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDc4UpspuKQ

Cheers