Frédéric Chopin - Préludes (Alexandre Tharaud)

Information

Composer: Frédéric Chopin; Federico Mompou

• Chopin - 24 Préludes, Op. 28
• Mompou - Musicá callada No. 15 (sur le thème du prélude no. 4 de Chopin)
• Chopin - Trois Nouvelles Études
• Mompou - Prélude No. 9
• Chopin - Prélude in C sharp minor, Op. 45
• Chopin - Petit Prélude in A flat major
• Mompou - El lago (Le Lac)

Alexandre Tharaud, piano

Date: 2008

Label: harmonia mundi

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Review

The best recordings of Chopin’s Op. 28 Preludes involve strong, captivating, and individual interpretive personalities, all of whom manage to project an intense awareness of and feeling for what the composer wrote. Think of classicists such as Petri, Pollini, and Moravec, free spirits on the order of Cortot, François, Argerich, and Sokolov, or Arrau’s Janus-faced pedant and maverick. Alexandre Tharaud easily earns a place among his illustrious predecessors, while bringing his own ideas to the table.

Tharaud grabs No. 1’s agitato directive and runs away with it, making the right hand’s triplet and quintuplet groupings distinctly audible. Likewise, the pianist feels No. 2 in cut time as written, and looks the pungent left-hand dissonant clashes straight in the eye. No. 3’s quicksilver leggiero patterns are marvelously varied in articulation and color, and in No. 4, Tharaud achieves Chopin’s espressivo desire via discreet rubato and subtle textural changes within the steady left-hand chords. He teasingly prolongs No. 7’s first note, only to play the prelude simply.

Most pianists drive through No. 12’s first big climax at measure 21. Not Tharaud, who leans into the grace notes in order to underline the music’s momentary mazurka-like feeling; it’s an odd yet convincing effect. No. 16 is not so fiery and dynamic as it should be, but No. 19’s multi-hued legato results from Tharaud’s close observation of the composer’s pedal markings. No. 21’s cantabile demeanor acquires an unusual forward moving urgency that naturally dovetails into No. 22’s unrelenting agitation.

A gorgeous reading of Mompou’s miniature based on Prelude No. 4 provides a resting point from which the Three Nouvelles Etudes spring with admirable profile and specificity. Tharaud’s line-oriented deliberation in the Op. 45 C-sharp minor Prelude brings out the Bach in Chopin, or perhaps the Chopin in Brahms’ Op. 76 No. 1 Capriccio? Incidentally, the Steinway grand Tharaud uses for these sessions conveys a vibrant, slightly twangy and characterful sound, ideally captured in warm, ample, and closely detailed engineering. Even if you already own a reference Chopin Preludes edition, seriously consider this most stimulating and rewarding release–delectable Mompou tidbits, artsy cover photo and all.

— Jed Distler

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Frédéric Chopin (1 March 1810 – 17 October 1849) was a Polish Romantic composer and virtuoso pianist. A prodigy from Warsaw, he moved to Paris at 21, where he spent the rest of his short life. Although often in poor health, he produced a remarkable body of piano-centered works, including nocturnes, mazurkas, waltzes, polonaises, études and two piano concertos. His music, which is known for technical brilliance and innovative harmony, helped shape musical nationalism and late-Romantic style. Chopin's iconic status, dramatic life, and early death made him one of the enduring symbols of the Romantic era.

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Jean-Guihen Queyras (born 11 March 1967) is a French cellist. He frequently collaborates with musicians including Isabelle Faust, Alexander Melnikov and Alexandre Tharaud, appears with leading orchestras worldwide, and worked with celebrated conductors such as Yannick Nézet-Séguin and John Eliot Gardiner. His acclaimed recordings include works by Elgar, Dvořák, Schumann and Bach, recorded exclusively for harmonia mundi. He is also a professor at the University of Music Freiburg and Artistic Director of the Rencontres Musicales de Haute-Provence festival. Queyras plays on the 1707 "Kaiser" Stradivarius.

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