Search - Frederic Chopin, Claudio Abbado, David Zinman :: Panorama: Frederic Chopin

Excellent in all regards is about all that can be said

DWPC | Ventura, CA United States | 09/04/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Argerich is a brilliant, natural Chopin interpreter. The performances are among the best, and the recording quality is well above the typical DG level. An excellent addition to any Chopin collection. A 2-disk set; great value too."

Great buy

caspi | Israel | 04/19/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If you want to get both Chopin's piano concertos - this is a wonderful choice. The performances by Argerich and Ashkenazy are among the best I heard. They are excellent, emotional, thrilling and as noble as Chopin music performance should be. In addition, there is a full set of 26 Preludes, Sonata No 2, Scherzo No 2 and Grande Polonaise Brilliante with Andante Spianato performed by Martha Argerich. The Preuldes set is brilliant, powerful and dynamic. This is true for each prelude and for the whole drive of the set.
I dare say that these recordings of Martha Argerich (Concerto No 1 and The Preludes) are among her best. As for The Concerto No 1 I find this recording much better than the other one by her with Dutoit as conductor, much more smooth and gentle.The Sonata is excellent, but here I'd combine the Argerich's second part with Ashkenazy's 1-st (recorded by Decca), 3-d and 4-th to get a real masterpiece. Scherzo and Polonaise will alse give you much pleasure, but still here I prefer them performed by Ashkenazy and also Pletnev (for Polonaise).The sound is generally not really very good, but I still give this CD 5 stars for successful compilation and for the quality of performances.
Don't forget about the price "one for two"."