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The playing of Montreal pianist Alain Lefèvre tends to fall into the love-it-or-hate-it category, and that's going to be all the more true with pieces as familiar as Chopin's 24 Preludes, Op. 28. What to make of the bare dissonances Lefèvre emphasizes in the preludes, almost unadorned by pedal? One might be reminded (as was annotator Georges Nicholson) that Schumann, on hearing the preludes for the first time, said, "Mind you, the collection also contains the morbid, feverish, repellent." Lefèvre doesn't neglect the pedal completely, and some might argue that his use of the piano is closer than usual to the sounds Chopin might have known. And the grand contrasts he finds in the set also comport with the image of the Romantic-era virtuoso: listeners get not Chopin, perhaps, but Liszt playing Chopin. Check out one of the really famous preludes in the set, maybe the Prelude in E minor, Op. 28/4, to hear Lefèvre's Chopin. It's about as far away from the gauzy, purple versions that are the standard for the work; Lefèvre articulates each note mercilessly and in so doing puts the piece's most daring harmonic moves front and center. For some it will be brilliant and revelatory, for others merely harsh, a quality amplified by Analekta's churchy sound. Even the detractors may well welcome the inclusion of the Piano Sonata No. 24 in D minor of Antonio Soler, who comes out here as a kind of Chopin forerunner.
© TiVo
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Frederic Chopin, Composer - Alain Lefèvre, MainArtist
(C) 2014 Groupe Analekta (Distribution) (P) 2014 Groupe Analekta (Distribution)
Frederic Chopin, Composer - Alain Lefèvre, MainArtist
(C) 2014 Groupe Analekta (Distribution) (P) 2014 Groupe Analekta (Distribution)
Frederic Chopin, Composer - Alain Lefèvre, MainArtist
(C) 2014 Groupe Analekta (Distribution) (P) 2014 Groupe Analekta (Distribution)
Frederic Chopin, Composer - Alain Lefèvre, MainArtist
(C) 2014 Groupe Analekta (Distribution) (P) 2014 Groupe Analekta (Distribution)
Frederic Chopin, Composer - Alain Lefèvre, MainArtist
(C) 2014 Groupe Analekta (Distribution) (P) 2014 Groupe Analekta (Distribution)
Frederic Chopin, Composer - Alain Lefèvre, MainArtist
(C) 2014 Groupe Analekta (Distribution) (P) 2014 Groupe Analekta (Distribution)
Frederic Chopin, Composer - Alain Lefèvre, MainArtist
(C) 2014 Groupe Analekta (Distribution) (P) 2014 Groupe Analekta (Distribution)
Frederic Chopin, Composer - Alain Lefèvre, MainArtist
(C) 2014 Groupe Analekta (Distribution) (P) 2014 Groupe Analekta (Distribution)
Frederic Chopin, Composer - Alain Lefèvre, MainArtist
(C) 2014 Groupe Analekta (Distribution) (P) 2014 Groupe Analekta (Distribution)
Frederic Chopin, Composer - Alain Lefèvre, MainArtist
(C) 2014 Groupe Analekta (Distribution) (P) 2014 Groupe Analekta (Distribution)
Frederic Chopin, Composer - Alain Lefèvre, MainArtist
(C) 2014 Groupe Analekta (Distribution) (P) 2014 Groupe Analekta (Distribution)
Frederic Chopin, Composer - Alain Lefèvre, MainArtist
(C) 2014 Groupe Analekta (Distribution) (P) 2014 Groupe Analekta (Distribution)
Frederic Chopin, Composer - Alain Lefèvre, MainArtist
(C) 2014 Groupe Analekta (Distribution) (P) 2014 Groupe Analekta (Distribution)
Frederic Chopin, Composer - Alain Lefèvre, MainArtist
(C) 2014 Groupe Analekta (Distribution) (P) 2014 Groupe Analekta (Distribution)
Frederic Chopin, Composer - Alain Lefèvre, MainArtist
(C) 2014 Groupe Analekta (Distribution) (P) 2014 Groupe Analekta (Distribution)
Frederic Chopin, Composer - Alain Lefèvre, MainArtist
(C) 2014 Groupe Analekta (Distribution) (P) 2014 Groupe Analekta (Distribution)
Frederic Chopin, Composer - Alain Lefèvre, MainArtist
(C) 2014 Groupe Analekta (Distribution) (P) 2014 Groupe Analekta (Distribution)
Frederic Chopin, Composer - Alain Lefèvre, MainArtist
(C) 2014 Groupe Analekta (Distribution) (P) 2014 Groupe Analekta (Distribution)
Frederic Chopin, Composer - Alain Lefèvre, MainArtist
(C) 2014 Groupe Analekta (Distribution) (P) 2014 Groupe Analekta (Distribution)
Frederic Chopin, Composer - Alain Lefèvre, MainArtist
(C) 2014 Groupe Analekta (Distribution) (P) 2014 Groupe Analekta (Distribution)
Frederic Chopin, Composer - Alain Lefèvre, MainArtist
(C) 2014 Groupe Analekta (Distribution) (P) 2014 Groupe Analekta (Distribution)
Frederic Chopin, Composer - Alain Lefèvre, MainArtist
(C) 2014 Groupe Analekta (Distribution) (P) 2014 Groupe Analekta (Distribution)
Frederic Chopin, Composer - Alain Lefèvre, MainArtist
(C) 2014 Groupe Analekta (Distribution) (P) 2014 Groupe Analekta (Distribution)
Frederic Chopin, Composer - Alain Lefèvre, MainArtist
(C) 2014 Groupe Analekta (Distribution) (P) 2014 Groupe Analekta (Distribution)
Antonio Soler, Composer - Alain Lefèvre, MainArtist
(C) 2014 Groupe Analekta (Distribution) (P) 2014 Groupe Analekta (Distribution)
Album review
The playing of Montreal pianist Alain Lefèvre tends to fall into the love-it-or-hate-it category, and that's going to be all the more true with pieces as familiar as Chopin's 24 Preludes, Op. 28. What to make of the bare dissonances Lefèvre emphasizes in the preludes, almost unadorned by pedal? One might be reminded (as was annotator Georges Nicholson) that Schumann, on hearing the preludes for the first time, said, "Mind you, the collection also contains the morbid, feverish, repellent." Lefèvre doesn't neglect the pedal completely, and some might argue that his use of the piano is closer than usual to the sounds Chopin might have known. And the grand contrasts he finds in the set also comport with the image of the Romantic-era virtuoso: listeners get not Chopin, perhaps, but Liszt playing Chopin. Check out one of the really famous preludes in the set, maybe the Prelude in E minor, Op. 28/4, to hear Lefèvre's Chopin. It's about as far away from the gauzy, purple versions that are the standard for the work; Lefèvre articulates each note mercilessly and in so doing puts the piece's most daring harmonic moves front and center. For some it will be brilliant and revelatory, for others merely harsh, a quality amplified by Analekta's churchy sound. Even the detractors may well welcome the inclusion of the Piano Sonata No. 24 in D minor of Antonio Soler, who comes out here as a kind of Chopin forerunner.
© TiVo
About the album
- 1 disc(s) - 25 track(s)
- Total length: 00:58:45
- Main artists: Alain Lefèvre
- Composer: Various Composers
- Label: Groupe Analekta, Inc
- Genre: Classical
(C) 2014 Groupe Analekta (Distribution) (P) 2014 Groupe Analekta (Distribution)
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