They still inspire
debate, these pre-war Études,
and doubtless they always will. Cortot
the fallible poet still rouses animus
in those who decry the occasionally
faltering fingers and in those who cannot
or will not discover the myriad beauties,
tonal and expressive, that he finds
in the music. Of course there are things
that will strike the listener as perplexing
or unconvincing; I happen to find the
smooth cantabile and rubati of Op 10
No.3 rather forced and unnatural sounding
and Op.10 No.12 not on quite so exalted
a level as the rest of the set. Yes,
Cortot’s voicings can sometimes become
convoluted – a case in point is Op.25
No.5 and Op.25 No.11 is hardly a model
of digital infallibility.
And yet Op.25 No.7,
the rich C sharp minor, is a minor miracle
of the alchemist’s art, the light and
shade that informs Op.10 No.2 is painterly
in its finesse, the life that teems
in the middle voices in the C sharp
minor Op.10 No.4 is verdant and magnificent,
the G flat major from the same set bejewelled
in its brilliance and brio. For those
who decry his technique, his octave
study (Op. 25 No.6, G sharp minor) is
representative of his virtuoso equipment.
The G flat major (Op.25 No. 9) is deliciously
fluent and free. Op.25 No.12 wonderfully
leonine and grand. The superlatives
are almost limitless.
So, a famous set and
famous sets have a habit of receiving
multiple releases. Some previous sets
have been guilty of using excessive
filtering on these 1933-34 sides. The
French EMI LP, from the Référence
series, served well but its CD counterpart,
a six CD set, relied too heavily on
Cedar. Enterprise, Andante, Music and
Arts, Pearl and Biddulph have devoted
releases to the pre-War Chopin sides.
Philips’ Great Pianists of the Century
has the Etudes, well transferred, but
in a double set coupled with Schumann
and Liszt. This new entrant comes from
Concert Artist and includes the three
Nouvelles Études recorded in
1949. They have clearly utilised good
quality pressings and applied a judicious
amount of noise suppression. There is,
set against the original 78s, a slight
degree of airlessness in the treble,
but this is undoubtedly to minimise
shellac noise. The big gain in this
transfer is in the middle and lower
frequencies, which were relatively light
in 1933 and 1934. They give a lifelike
immediacy to Cortot’s playing and bring
out those voicings with greater dynamism
than the EMI transfers, LP and CD. A
direct recommendation will depend on
how much, or how little, of Cortot’s
Chopin you want. A representative Chopin
collection without these sets is inconceivable
and you could do a lot worse than acquaint
yourself with this release.
Jonathan Woolf
Concert
Artist complete catalogue available
from MusicWeb International