SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

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Chopin:  Maurizio Pollini (piano) Royal Festival Hall, London, 1.3.2010 (CC)

24 Preludes, Op. 28

Ballade No. 1 in G minor, Op. 23

Two Nocturnes, Op. 27

Etudes, Op. 25 (selection)

 

Maurizio Pollini and Krystian Zimerman both gave recitals within the space of a week, to celebrate the two days on which Chopin might have been born. Pollini’s concert was packed to the rafters – rarely have I seen such a queue for returns, and some of those who could not get it sat watching the recital on monitors outside the hall itself. Chopin and Pollini have long been linked, of course, ever since his triumph in the Chopin Competition in Warsaw in 1960.

All of the pieces on the programme have been closely linked to Pollini. I remain unsure as to why Pollini made the decision to only include eight Etudes from Op. 25. Given that the advertised programme only ended at 918pm, there was ample space for them. Nevertheless, this was a recital that generally showed Pollini at his finest.

The DG recording of the Op. 28 Preludes has long been highly regarded, and Pollini’s 2010 take on them showed that he continues to re-evaluate his interpretation. The sound (characteristically, a Fabbrini Steinway) seemed much warmer than we are accustomed to from this pianist. Voicing was exemplary; it was only with the second that we became aware that this reading was to be no comfortable traversal - the A-minor sounded remarkably modern here. It was if Pollini wanted to show that these Preludes contain the entire world. Even the slight A-major, one that might be construed as anti-Pollinian in its innocence, was a delight, and tenderness did appear in the famous D flat, No. 15. There were rare moments when Pollini distanced himself from the music too much, but they were rare indeed.

The Ballade in G minor appeared on Pollini’s rightly famous 1968 HMV disc (he made two recordings for them, one of which was the famous Chopin First Concerto with Kletzki, before transferring to the Yellow Label in 1971) and has been a companion to him ever since. Most often, recently, it has been heard as a regular encore. If he has programmed it in the main recital, though, he has previously sounded rather held back, the hair only coming down in its appearance as an encore. Not so here, with the lyric sections always holding the tension that led through to a hair-raising coda. In contrast, the two Nocturnes, Op. 27 were models of subtlety, the more restless C sharp minor the perfect foil for the filigree of the D-flat.

Of the Op. 25 Etudes that Pollini granted us, the most impressive was possibly No. 10, the B minor “octave” study. Again, one of these has regularly appeared as an encore, the first, in A-flat, here heard with glorious cantabile and magnificent delivery of inner lines. Another Pollini favourite, the so-called “Revolutionary” Etude (Op. 10/12, C minor) acted as the first encore; an exquisitely crafted Mazurka led to a remarkably urgent, and generous, C sharp minor Scherzo as a final offering.

 

Colin Clarke