Search - Johannes Brahms, Frederic Chopin, Cédric Tiberghien :: Ballades: Brahms, Chopin

Cedric Tiberghien: Chopin & Brahms Ballades: Stunning Music.

Dan Fee | Berkeley, CA USA | 11/20/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This regular red book CD is my musical introduction to the pianist.



[...]



On this disc he plays the four ballades by Chopin, with the four Brahms ballades interspersed as a whole group in between the Chopin group, halved.



What sophisticated and joyous piano playing this is.



The recording venue was the Teldec Studios in Berlin, and the engineering on the piano sound is probably as good as it ever gets in regular red book CD. At all sound levels - loud, medium, soft - the tone and presence of his instrument never falters. There is enough air around the resonating keyboard that one gets a beautiful sense of how the room lets the piano sound blossom and fill, regardless of the volume. I bet every pianist recorded wishes they got sound this good on their master tapes.



Tiberghien's touch offers the ear a sensual, alive, and altogether marvelous palette. His sound is simply always glistening or glowing, like a finely matched set of pearls laid against the velvetiest velvet - his voicings are lean and a bit silvery, reminding the ear of violinists like Henryk Szyryng. His playing is elegant enough to recall Artur Grumiaux, or perhaps the great Jacques Thibaud himself. No matter what he is doing, and on this disc in this repertoire he does quite a lot indeed, his tone never leeches into hardness, nor into that superficial glitzy shine which young virtuosos can use to get our quick attention before they disappoint us with their shallowness. All the athletic keyboard display that is so integral to Chopin's style remains, well, integral. He can leap all over the keyboard without interfering with any of the wondrous music.



In the Chopin Ballades, Tiberghien does not stint on the shifting play of those famous harmonies, yet somehow one never fails to hear the melody - and the counter-melody - so soulfully sung right through, always Bel Canto; and always palpably to the musical point. Each passing phrase gets its considerable due, but Tiberghien also excels at getting the musical paragraphs just right, too. Rubato ever serves the breathing line, short or long. This sort of Chopin playing has the classical poise and balance we used to associate with Artur Rubinstein's Chopin, without in the least mauling the grand French tradition of lofty Chopin interpretation, up to and including the legendary Alfred Cortot and the eccentric Samson Francois.



After the first two Chopin Ballades, we get all four of the Brahms Opus 10 Ballades. Tiberghien brings the same profound musical attention to these four genre pieces that he just showed in the Chopin, and suddenly one stops questioning the potential awkwardness of their juxtaposition on the disc. Brahms does not stop being himself, however; so the first insights to be harvested from this central group must include our realizing anew that Brahms knew and inhabited the German High Romantic school of piano playing exemplified by Chopin and Schumann, even while he struck out on new paths (as Schoenberg noted).



By the time a listener gets to the fourth Brahms Ballade, the return to Chopin's last two Ballades can only deepen the contrasts and the hidden, subtle Romantic musical kinship. One yet again avows readily how personal and intimate Brahms was in his small genre pieces, at the same time one confesses to neglecting the intimate disclosures of Chopin's oeuvre in favor of bad faith critical conformity to middle-class drawing room and concert hall views of his music. Tiberghein artfully embodies just how much more to Chopin there is, than any of the bored reverences may admit.



Tiberghien recreates and refreshes the enduring merit of both composers, effortlessly.



Now, when do we get the four Chopin Scherzos from Tiberghien? And when does he turn his enviable gifts and intelligence and heart to the rest of the Brahms? If these two are holiday season wishes, surely we must soon add Schumann to the list. In particular, I would dearly love to have Tiberghien record the much-neglected set of the Schumann Novelletten, Opus 21.



Do take a chance on Tiberghien in Debussy, too. He has recorded the I & II Images, plus. The UK BBC project to record and broadcast 12 New Generation Artists will hopefully bring us even more, as BBC 3 Radio has helped to bring us this disc.



Bravo, C. T. Don't let your success go all to your head. Keep working, keep deepening, for we are your devoted and discerning fans. Yes, get this disc, no matter who else you already have conserved on your fav shelf who plays this music.



WOW."

Excellent Chopin

Dexter Tay | 06/14/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Personally I think Cedric Tiberghien is one of the most unknown or perhaps even underrated Chopin interpreters of our time. If Li Yundi's Chopin has garnered so much praise and recognition, I think Tiberghien should receive no less by token of his very fine interpretation of Chopin's four enduring works here.



In an age where Chopin's works are so widely recorded and subjected to interpretations by well-established pianists who are intent to leave their idiosyncratic and inimitable touch on Chopin, such clean, unfettered and unpretentious reading like Tiberghien's is hard to come by.



Technically a pianist of the first rank - Tiberghien also displays, for his age, a great deal of maturity and sensibility in his playing far more than some of his inveterate counterparts.



Playing the first and fourth Ballades myself, I find Tiberghien's intepretation closest to heart, more so than many of the bigger names in the market.



If you are looking for an intepretation of Chopin's Ballades that is free from exaggerated nuances, extreme fluctuations in tempi and rubato, morose affectation or thoughtless virtuosity, you will find yourself duly rewarded with a whole new revelatory experience here.

"

An excellent new Chopin set

Ben Brouwer | Minneapolis, MN USA | 09/25/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"What a happy discovery this CD was! So many of the heretofore "gold standards" of Chopin's ballades have been marked with annoying quirks; for example, the highly mannered, meticulous perfectionism of Zimerman, or the highly fluent yet interpretively bland attempts from artists like Hough.



While one gets the impression that Tiberghien does not have the same effortless technical command as some other pianists, he pays more attention to the score and he rarely deviates from its instructions. His playing is rich in color, finely nuanced, shedding light here and there yet keeping every element in its proper place. (Listen to the perfectly accented D in bar 34 of the first Ballade: no "dogs barking" here!)



In short, this is some great Chopin playing. It is borderline heresy to say this, but I suspect that if Dinu Lipatti had recorded the Ballades, they may have sounded something like this..."