Search - Chopin, Koczalsky :: Ballades / Valses / Nocturne Op 9

Old style of playing Chopin

Robert Stefaniuk | Piaseczno, Poland | 02/08/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"( Beware that I'm not an expert and my english is quite poor )

It's common opinion that Chopin was the best and only proper interpretator of his works ( his friends, like Ferenc List, claimed it ). Thus people are interested to know how he played.

Koczalski was the pupil of Karol Mikuli, who was the pupil of Chopin himself, so he would give us insight on Chopin's style.

How much he borrowed from Chopins style through Mikuli, we don't know.

Koczalski is a faded star, he had great succes as a prodigy and was high-rated Chopin interpretator during his career.

Now his style is unsuitable for common competition requirements and common tastes. He plays very soft sound, without sufficiently strong accents and accurate left-hand part.

Although, he doesn't make this awful slow-downs and accelerations during play, wich makes Chopins music sound like a steam engine. It sometimes results with great interpretations in my opinion ( 1st and 4th Ballade ). It is the poetic a dancing music here.

So it's worth to know his style, different from present ones, if you want to gather more knowledge about Chopin interpreters and playing his works before II W.W."