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Hi

I am playing a Chopin piece for the first time, one of his Mazurka's for a grade 6 exam.

Would anyone be able to suggest/recommend a cd compilation of his Mazurka's that is available to purchase

thanks

I like Garrick Ohlsson's "Chopin the Complete Works," on Hyperion. UPC 0 34571 14351 4. You might be able to find the single discs with just the mazurkas at a used CD store, on the former releasing label, Arabesque.

Artur Rubenstein's recordings on BMG (formerly on the RCA label) are classics in their own right, but unfortunately some of the recordings were made before the technology was mature (mono, not very hi-fi, etc). Ohlsson's are more up-to-date in that way.

There are many others, some by wonderful pianists who are much less well-known. It could be worthwhile to just take a chance on whatever you can find in the local stores or library.

There's a recording of Cortot playing all of them. This is a pianist with direct ties to the 19th century. You don't hear playing like this anymore.

It's fake though, sadly. People had believed this for years, but I can say for certain that they were right. "Cortot" plays many triplets as a quaver and two semiquavers. This is repeatedly deployed in virtually every triplet. This mannerism is nowhere in the mazurka clips from the masterclasses. It's not heard even once, nevermind habitually deployed. The recording (on the "con artist" label) can be dismissed beyond any doubt.

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I didn't know that. Do you have any source of info on the subject that you could direct me to? I'd love to learn more. I've not ever heard Cortot's mazurkas (fake or not).

I have Ashkenazy.

It's the guy who did the Hatto scam.

I think that you may referring to Rubinstein's recordings from the 1930's on EMI - ones that a few pianists prefer to the later stereo Mazurkas from the 1960's on BMG.

I think his later mazurkas are wonderful - the original vinyl set was one of the formative recordings of my youth. However the piano is miked extremely close, and might sound dry and harsh to many.

When I finally got them on CD, I spent $100 bucks on his BMG complete Chopin set, not realizing that the whole set would be re-issued in a new state-of-the-art remastering job 6 months later. Talk about rotten timing.

For a complete recording I would recommend the early Rubinstein set. As far as selections goes, Kapell, Friedmann and Horowitz are personal favourites.

Her husband then, yes? Were the recordings actually Joyce then or...?

The Ashkenazy recordings date from 1977 to 1985 and are available on a two-disc budget set from London/Decca.

No one has yet mentioned the Fou Ts'ong set on Sony Essential Classics. While I haven't heard much about Fou Ts'ong these days, I read he now lives in London and has devoted his time to both performing and teaching. He was acclaimed not only for his Chopin interpretations in general but, specifically, for his intuitive sense of the Mazurka rhythm. He won the special Mazurka prize at the 1955 Chopin International Competition. His recording dates from 1984.

Regards,

Quite honestly, I suspect it is. The pianist is clearly trying to do an impression of an older style. I cannot imagine where else the recordings could have come from.

for a complete set, I second Rubinstein's (in fact, you might as well get his whole Chopin box, it's only 20-someodd dollars), and Ohlsson's. The ones Horowitz plays, he does well, and i believe there are a few clips of Zimerman playing some mazurka's on Youtube...if you want to play one of those, his playing would be an excellent frame of reference.