A BONANZA OF CHOPIN

The music of Chopin remains the pianist’s touchstone, the measure by which we judge the totality of his or her accomplishment.

Other composers may require more in terms of virtuosity and sheer power, or the vaguely defined quality we call intellect. None, however, demands a more complete mastery of the mechanics of the piano. And none demands more in terms of heart, soul or sensitivity--those qualities that we equate with artistry rather than mere skill.

Since World War II, the mellow interpretations of Artur Rubinstein, recently reissued in compact disc format, have so strongly colored attitudes toward the music of Chopin that to many listeners Rubinstein’s has seemed the only way. Which is taking rather too narrow a view of Chopin and his interpreters.

Performance of Chopin’s works by other pianists did not stop during Rubinstein’s lifetime. And Chopin recordings by a multitude of pianists have always been with us, with nothing less than a deluge developing in the newly arrived age of the compact disc.

Britain’s enterprising Nimbus label has brought a pair of distinguished elder Chopin specialists back to the recording studio after lengthy absences: the Polish-born, French-domiciled and educated (by Moszkowski and Cortot) Vlado Perlemuter, who is still performing in public at 84, and the very active 76-year-old, Russian-born Shura Cherkassky, who lived and studied (at one time with Josef Hofmann) in the United States for many years before a recent move to London.

Both are old-time Romantic pianists with obvious ties to the 19th-Century Russian school which emphasized beauty of tone and rhythmic freedom over textual fidelity.

Of the two, Cherkassky is more given to “personal statement”--one might uncharitably, if with a considerable degree of accuracy, describe his Chopin playing as eccentric. In a program comprising the B-minor Sonata, several Nocturnes and Mazurkas and the Andante Spianato and Grande Polonaise (Nimbus 5044, CD only) Cherkassky proves to be the sort of artist--no longer common--who regards the score as a launching pad for his own emotional responses. The high-flown results are not recommended for the faint of heart--or pure of taste.

While one could hardly call Perlemuter’s playing restrained, there is nonetheless a firmer sense of line in his work. In a handsome concert comprising the Opus 28 Preludes, the Opus 45 Prelude and the Berceuse (Nimbus 5064, CD only), and in an even more imposing disc containing the two mature Sonatas and the Barcarolle (Nimbus 5038, CD only), one finds plangent, richly colored, emotionally expansive playing of the grandest, most communicative sort. In a collection of Nocturnes (Nimbus 5012, CD only), however, Perlemuter tends to dawdle and dream, robbing the music of that vital rhythmic pulse, the mobility and shapeliness which marks the Chopin of Rubinstein--and, if one can judge by a single exposure, of Sergei Edelmann.

Edelmann, a young Soviet emigre now living in the United States, presents us with an attractive Chopin recital (RCA 5915, LP or CD) that includes the Nocturne in F-sharp, the Polonaise-Fantasie, a trio of Mazurkas, and the B-minor Sonata.

The young Soviet pianist Dmitri Alexeev follows his excellent 1986 Angel recording of the Chopin Waltzes with an even more impressive one of the complete Preludes (Angel 47662, CD only).

The immediate difference between Alexeev’s Chopin and that of the aforementioned senior citizens--and even Edelmann--is his preference for a brighter, more edgy sonority and sharply inflected rhythms. Call him a modern pianist, then, but one whose playing never leans too far in the direction of percussiveness or unseemly tension.

Finally, a new recording (Elektra/Nonesuch 79160, LP or CD) by one of the musical wonders of the century, Mieczyslaw Horszowski: friend, inspiration and teacher of such brainy pianists as Richard Goode, Peter Serkin and Murray Perahia, and himself a pupil of the legendary Leschetitsky. Horszowski, it should be noted, made this recording in May, 1986, a few days shy of his 94th birthday.

The high point of this profoundly satisfying recital, which also includes lustrous readings of Debussy’s “Children’s Corner,” the Beethoven A-major Sonata, Opus 2, No. 2, and Mozart’s D-minor Fantasia, K. 397, is a pair of Chopin Nocturnes, those in F-sharp, Opus 15, No. 2 and D flat, Opus 27, No. 2.

Horszowski plays Chopin with the eloquent simplicity, the “singing” tone and finely gauged rubato that distinguish the great Chopin player, yet interestingly, in the United States this none-too-well-known doyen of living pianists has been regarded almost exclusively as a Mozart and Beethoven interpreter.

It has just been brought to our attention that the recently married Horszowski is, a month after his 95th birthday, preparing to depart for a European recital tour. Que hombre!