Search - Frederic Chopin, Idil Biret :: Chopin: Complete Piano Music, Vol. 10

(-) Biret in for as much 'heavy weather' as ever

C. Pontus T. | SE/Asia | 10/08/2008

(2 out of 5 stars)

"All you constant five-star reviewers probably should stop reading right now as you won't find any of those worn out superlatives in my reviews of Biret's Chopin. The reason is simple: as recorded by Naxos, her efforts in Chopin rarely achieve anything but weird waywardness that has little to do with the revealing that unique, universal treasure inherent in Chopin's music.



Oh, actually, in fact there is some positive news in Biret's Preludes compared to the vast majority of her other Chopin outings. The 24 Preludes encompass such a peerless range of features, emotions and purely pianistic effects that some Preludes in fact, at least to some extent, benefit form Biret's hard-driven idiosyncrasies. A few examples: the B minor--sometimes a little boring but here unexpectedly interesting, if not entirely idiomatic; the E major--truly majestic in Biret's hands; the C-sharp minor--surprisingly sparkling; the F-sharp major and A-flat major--individually dreamy, if again not very idiomatic-sounding; the F minor--indeed dramatic; the B-flat major and F major--unusually lively, if technically flawed (above all the pedaling). On the other hand, as expected there are still quite a number of outright failures: the A minor--so fiddled around with that not much shape remains; the G major and D major--technically quite unconvincing; the G-sharp minor and B-flat minor--same problem as with the previous two; the E-flat major--something of a mess (both technically and dynamically); the Op post A-flat major--well, neither Presto con leggierezza nor pianissimo.



In Jed Distler's (ClassicsToday) November 1999 feature review of Biret's complete Chopin traversal (Chopin: Complete Piano Music), one finds numerous adjectives like 'dynamically charged, gutsy playing', 'leisurely, exploratory approach' and 'unpressured inflection'. This is certainly a very nice way of describing what others identify more along the above lines--just sample some Gramophone, Penguin Guide or BBC Music Magazine reviews that, at least when it comes to Biret, more often than not are quite accurately fair ('heavy weather' being used with some pronounced frequency).



However, as to the Op 28 Preludes Mr Distler surprises by stating 'It's hit and miss with the Preludes: some are sharply profiled and projected, while others seem less digested, as if they had been "gotten up" for the microphone'. To me, this a rather hitting description of Biret's Chopin playing in general, which happen to be less disturbing in the Preludes than in the Noctures, Mazurkas and the structurally bigger works. Speaking of which, this disc also features Biret's disastrous Barcarolle, being so willful and uneven that any kind of coherence or forward momentum is entirely lost. Lastly, her performances of the two Bourrees are so harshly insensitive they actually deserve being heard (awarded them the extra 'heavy weather' minus)--two brief and utterly telling proofs of how Ms Biret all too often views the prince of perfect piano composing. (BTW, not much improvement on the coarse Tonstudio van Geest sound.)"