Chopin: Polonaises, review
Rafal Blechacz reaches to the heart of the seven works in this programme, his expressive personality finding a compelling accord with Chopin’s own, says Geoffrey Norris.
Chopin specialist: Pianist Rafal
Blechacz Photo: Felix
Broede/DG
Rafal Blechacz (piano)
DG 479 0928, £13.99
Rafal
Blechacz’s name is inextricably linked with Chopin’s, and that can
certainly be no bad thing for a pianist. Blechacz, at the age of only 20, swept
the board at the 2005 Chopin Competition in Warsaw, winning first prize and all
sorts of special accolades, and proving himself to be so much in a league of his
own that no second prize was awarded.
He has already recorded the Chopin concertos (477 8088) and the complete
preludes (477 6592) for Deutsche Grammophon, and this new disc of polonaises is,
like them, of exceptional distinction.
If we think of Chopin’s polonaises as a multifaceted
musical manifestation of the character of his native Poland – its pride, its
spirit, its vulnerability, its sorrow – all those qualities are identified and
brought into the potent interpretative mix of Blechacz’s performances. He has
the requisite power to assert his presence, as Chopin so often does at the start
of these pieces, but he also has the breadth of understanding to temper his
tonal strength, depth and muscle with tenderness, lyrical warmth and a pianistic
palette of both rich and delicate colours.
Take the particularly well-known A major Op 40 No1. Here Blechacz has
complete command of the music’s swagger and healthy outlook, subtly maintaining
the distinctive, propulsive polonaise rhythm in the bass and, with thoroughly
natural inflections to the music’s pace, making the piece gleam with an
exhilarating freshness.
Then in the contrasting C minor Op 40 No2, Blechacz conveys something much darker, more explosively passionate, more disturbingly restless. Blechacz reaches to the heart of the seven works in this programme, his expressive personality finding a compelling accord with Chopin’s own.
Then in the contrasting C minor Op 40 No2, Blechacz conveys something much darker, more explosively passionate, more disturbingly restless. Blechacz reaches to the heart of the seven works in this programme, his expressive personality finding a compelling accord with Chopin’s own.
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