Chopin: Reminiscences

Album review

Recorded in 2004 and released in 2010, in connection with a series of nine recitals of Frédéric Chopin's keyboard music, Reminiscences was Artur Pizarro's elegant tribute for the composer's 200th anniversary year. While he programmed all of Chopin's solo piano music for his concert appearances in London, for this recording Pizarro has turned to pieces he learned in his youth, whether absorbed from Artur Rubinstein's and Heinrich Neuhaus' LPs or picked up from his grandmother, Berta da Nóbrega; her duo partner, Evaristo Campos Coelho; and his own piano teacher, Sequeira Costa. Early contact with great recordings and these musicians informed Pizarro's own style of playing Chopin, and he asserts that their teaching at one point or another influenced his interpretations of the works selected for this album. Included are such perennial favorites as the Grand Valse Brillante in E flat major; the Fantaisie-Impromptu in C sharp minor; the Polonaise in A flat major, "Héroique"; the Nocturne in E flat major; and the Scherzo in B flat minor, as well as other waltzes, nocturnes, and mazurkas to which Pizarro formed early attachments. On the whole, his renditions are passionate and often quite lyrical, though his use of rubato at times seems mannered and not always necessary. Yet if one assumes that some exaggerated effects are called for, considering the performance styles he draws on, then one could make the case that this is Chopin as Pizarro remembers hearing long ago, perhaps a different proposition than what some listeners might expect to hear from a modern performer. This hybrid SACD from Linn Records offers warm and credible reproduction and the frequency range is quite wide, so Pizarro's pianissimos are captured as distinctly as his fortissimos, and the piano's tone is rich and full.
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