Frédéric François CHOPIN (1810-1849)
Shaping Chopin
Waltzes, Mazurkas and Nocturnes
Anna Fedorova (piano)
rec. July 2020, Muziekgebouw, Eindhoven, Netherlands
Download of the DSD256 (11.289MHz) surround (5.0 channels) file from
Native DSD
CHANNEL CLASSICS CCS 43621
[63:35]
With an album entitled “Shaping Chopin”, one would certainly hope that
there’s no misshaping evident in the playing,
and, fortunately, Anna Fedorova is a reliable guide to the music, almost
never leading us astray.
With the Leeds Competition and the Warsaw Chopin Competition both occurring
this year, I’m reminded of how eagerly I’ve sometimes followed the progress
of various competitors in previous competitions, often in real time, as
they travel via “the competition route” to try to make their careers in
music. Based on what I’d seen of Anna Fedorova’s competition performances,
I’ve been favorably disposed to her playing. And yet, in the really
prestigious competitions, she never got as far as I thought she might. I’m
thinking in particular of the 2010 Warsaw Chopin Competition where, if I
remember correctly, she did not get to the third round. Of course, that
competition took place a long time ago in the world of piano careers, and
Fedorova has matured as an artist in the meantime. I was happy when she
signed a contract with Channel Classics a few years ago, especially since
that company’s audiophile attainments assure its artists of a superior
presentation of their playing.
Perhaps the only trouble with making recordings with an audiophile
operation, such as Channel Classics, is the tendency of some listeners to
focus occasionally on the sound, rather than the music. I’ll admit that,
because of the superlative nature of the sound quality, I was caught in
this temptation with this very album, as I was so thrilled with how the
engineers seemed to be capturing the most minute nuances, that I kept
increasing my listening level in order to find the very limit of what they
could capture in Fedorova’s playing. However, what I didn’t realize was
that, as I increased the level (beyond what’s normal for me), I was, in a
strange way, also changing the nature of the performances themselves.
When I had the level set higher than usual, Fedorova’s playing struck me as
overwrought, over inflected, heavy, and even unnatural, as if she were
trying too hard to be expressive. It was only the third or fourth time
around that I experimented with dropping the playback level back down to
what sounds normal in my room. What a transformation! At the reduced level,
the playing regained its subtlety, and the nuances were exactly that — not
overdone volume shifts. I’ve certainly made a note of this for future
reference, so as not to get trapped getting a mistaken impression of the
playing, just because I’d set the volume higher than it should be.
With the volume set optimally, so much of the playing now sounds light on
its fingers, even when the tempo is restrained. I’m thinking in particular
of the A-flat major Waltz, Op. 42 (the one which begins with the long trill
and then splits the hands with the right hand having a double-count
division within each bar — in effect, two triplets per bar — while the left
hand maintains a strict triple-count division as one would expect in a
normal waltz). This main theme begins in bar 9, and Chopin marks it
leggiero. Fedorova takes a somewhat moderate tempo, and brings out the
melody (the first note of each “triplet” in the right hand) beautifully,
with no interference from the rest of the texture. At bar 41 however,
Chopin abandons the double accentuation in the right hand and allows it to
scamper up and down the keyboard over the distance of more than a couple of
octaves in a bit more of a technical challenge. Here, Fedorova ups the
tempo a bit and provides some bracing contrast with her main tempo. Even
though Chopin does not indicate a tempo change at this point, what Fedorova
does here is very effective indeed. And even though Fedorova is flying
during these sections, she still has enough in reserve to make the
requisite accelerando at the end. Well done!
Another spot that made me sit up and take notice is the very opening of the
C-sharp minor Mazurka. The combination of the Channel Classics engineering
and Fedorova’s patrician touch makes that single G-sharp which opens the
piece one of the most beguiling single notes I’ve ever heard on a piano
recording! Especially when heard via the multichannel tracks, the note just
floats in space as if from a real piano, divorced from particular speaker
sources. It heralds a rendition wherein the pianist’s superb control of
nuance and textural balance evoke the veiled beauties and evanescent
subtlety which we become aware of only in the most exceptional
performances. Certainly, Fedorova’s highly nuanced interpretation is not
the only one possible with this music, and I reacquainted myself with a
couple of other performances of this work which I’ve loved over the years.
These performances were more straightforward, but also a touch more
workmanlike, compared to Fedorova’s outstanding realization.
Interpretation being somewhat subjective, I have to report that there were
some aspects to the playing which I didn’t find quite as convincing. For
instance, in the F-major Waltz, Op. 34 No. 3, the rhythm of the opening
bars (well, bars 3, 5, 6, 7 and 8) degenerates a bit into a duplet
division, rather than maintaining a strict 3/4 time. Far be it from me to
tell Fedorova how to play this work, but it seems that, in her to quest to
present the articulation cleanly, she plays the eighth note in each of
these bars too soon and slightly too slowly, and then does not get off the
quarter note on the third beat quickly enough, with the resulting
susceptibility toward that duplet division I mentioned. She’s of course not
the only musician to do this, and in fact you hear this same kind of
rhythmic distortion surprisingly often in performances of the similar
motive in the first movement of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony.
In the popular Fantasy-Impromptu, Fedorova’s tempo allows for the whirlwind
of the right-hand’s figuration to escape the gravity which holds back more
note-bound interpretations. At the same time however, I would have liked to
hear more clarity in the left hand. Of course, the left hand is the
subsidiary part here, but it’s still possible to keep its figuration clear
while yet subduing it, and, to my mind, this kind of clarity would
certainly have enhanced the performance.
By the way, there’s a mistake in the listing, both in the booklet and in
the meta information for the track: the key of the Third Waltz of Op. 64 is
shown as A-flat minor. It is, of course, A-flat major, as in
the listing of this review.
Despite the couple of quibbles I have with some of the playing, my
dominating impression of this recital is of Fedorova’s wonderful command of
her tonal resources, a command which, for the most part, overshadows the
complaints I’ve voiced.
Chris Salocks
Contents
Grande Valse Brillante in E-flat major, Op. 18 [5:43]
Two Nocturnes, Op. 27:
No. 1 in C-sharp minor [5:16]
No. 2 in D-flat major [6:11]
Three Waltzes, Op. 34:
No. 1 in A-flat major [6:12]
No. 2 in A minor [5:44]
No. 3 in F major [2:43]
Waltz in A-flat major, Op. 42 [4:19]
Three Mazurkas, Op. 50:
No. 1 in G major [2:40]
No. 2 in A-flat major [3:32]
No. 3 in C-sharp minor [5:29]
Three Waltzes, Op. 64:
No. 1 in D-flat major [2:09]
No. 2 in C-sharp minor [4:18]
No. 3 in A-flat major [3:09]
Fantaisie-Impromptu in C-sharp minor, Op. 66 [5:12]
