If you love the music of Frederick Chopin, this new CD is for you:
Louis Lortie plays Chopin Volume 5
Chopin:
Mazurkas (5), Op. 7
Polonaise No. 1 in C sharp minor, Op. 26 No. 1
Mazurkas (4), Op. 33
Polonaise No. 2 in E flat minor, Op. 26 No. 2
Mazurkas (3), Op. 59
Polonaise No. 5 in F sharp minor, Op. 44
Allegro de Concert in A major Op. 46
All performed by Louis Lortie (piano)
Louis Lortie’s Chopin series is achieving landmark status, as confirmed by the increasingly enthusiastic reviews of progressive volumes. This fifth one neautifully highlights the Polish influences in Chopin’s music, offering gems from among the mazurkas and polonaises.
Relatively brief in duration and simple in structure, the mazurkas reveal other aspect of Chopin’s music: quirky melodies, strangely chromatic harmonies, oddly accented rhythms, irregular phrase lengths, and wildly contrasting keyboard textures. They represent a fascinating part of Chopin’s output, for audiences and pianists alike.
The vigor of the polonaises featured here, including the first two to be published, confirms Chopin as a radical, yet idiomatic transformer of the genre.
The Allegro de concert, which Chopin was said to have kept for his projected return to ‘a free Warsaw’, is another link to his beloved country.
Here is a performance of Chopin’s Waltz number 19 as performed by Louis Lortie:
