So who is your favourite Chopin interpret, Lili?

i really don't know! i should pay more attention to the performer's names on the front of all the cd's i get from the library . lol i usually just look at the back to see the track listing. do you recommend anyone in particular?

Ashkenazy's iterpretations will surely make you take notice,as I own a few of his albums on decca(LONDON)(polonaises,chopin favorites,).A good Chopin favorites is a good place to start.Ashkenazy is a great Chopin player in most respects, but in my ear Vladimir Horwitz has always been the chopin master.You may want to try his Chopin favorites on cbs masterworks.The recording is crisp and clear,and of course horowitz puts it all into perspective.He will send gooosebumps down your spine.(

I'm just in this moment listening to the Berceuse in an old recording (from 1947) by Lev Oborin (Ashkenazy's teacher). It's a quite interesting CD called "The Golden Twelve" (Vol.1) featuring the first four winners of the International Chopin Piano Competition. Oborin won in 1927. There's also Alexsandre Ununsky, who won in 1932, Yakov Zak (1937) and Bella Davidovich (1949). It's interesting to listen to these old intrepretations, so I can definately recommend this CD if it can be found anywhere but Poland.

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Contemporary Classical Composer, Concert Organist and Pianist

chopin and liszt are the best

Ohh, Ahh Its so fast, if faster , better! Chopin so fast! Me like!
SERIOUSLY, Chopin is a well spring that propels the piano into the twentieth century. If you listen closely, you can hear those wide lean chord voicings that turn up in Stravinsky and then Copland. I have always considered Chopin the Bach of Piano in that he point the way to the possibilities and teaches, and the first modernist. I cannot listen too long, because like Schumann, his insanity bleeds over into his music and takes over. As for not getting enough credit, HOW DO YOU FIGURE THAT? He is the most played and studied PIANIST of all time!

As for Chopin players, Rubenstein, Martha Argerich, Richter, Pollini, and Ashkenazy Covers it!

...couldn't agree with you more... music was great though...

Frederic Chopin was the greatest pianist composer along with Piotr Tchaikovsky, Serge Rachmaninov, Ludwig Van Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Liszt , Edvard Grieg, Aleksandr Scriabin and Claude Achille Debussy.

I love Chopin, I really enjoy listening to his piano music. I have an LP which I bought many years ago, it is all Chopin piano music with Ashkenazy. I can never hear it enough.


Margaret

I like listening to some of his pieces, the frantic etudes are astounding to look at and listen to. But there is something missing in Chopin as a figure, I don't feel his music, like I do with other composers.

Are you serious?

I suggest to take some time to listen to the following:

Ballade No. 1
Sonata No. 2
Scherzo No. 2
Etude Op. 10 No. 3
Piano Concerto No. 2 in f
Etude Op. 25 No. 11
Ballade No. 4
Nocturne in c minor, d flat major, c sharp minor

I'm already familiar with those pieces, except the 1st ballad. I'm sorry, it just doesn't get to me, I don't feel it. However, this doesn't mean I do not appreciate Chopin as a composer, I can understand that he is considered a great artist, his music just isn't for me.

The same for Liszt (though I'm less familiar with him), his works also don't do anything for me.

IMO, MOST of Liszt works are flamboyant, flashy, concert-type and over-the-top. This is not saying all of them. The difference with Chopin, I feel, is that he is more personal (having less strength as a pianist, and concentrating more on expression than virtuosi), and much easier to "feel" when you play.

I could (notice "could" not "do") spend a day locked up in a room playing Chopin's Nocturnes, Ballades... but Liszt Hungarian Rhapsodies maybe I'd get to the 2nd and then be too exhausted.

Oh, listen to the first Ballade.

I have no idea what i'm talking about because I am really not that passionate about Chopin.

I like Chopin, he's not my favorite, but I like some of his works. Right now I'm learning Revolutionary Etude, which I have to say is probably the most fun piece I've played. I have nearly all of it memorized, now I just need to get it up to speed.