Description
The complete Etudes of Fryderyk Chopin performed of one of Poland's most superb pianists, Krzysztof Jablonski, on a period instrument.
Following Krzysztof Jablonski's interpretations of the Etudes Op. 10 and 25 on a contemporary piano (NIFCCD215, 2016), the Fryderyk Chopin Institute presents the Etudes on a piano from Chopin's era. Each disc is an example of superb piano playing however, together, aside from their artistic value, they are also of exceptional research value, as they provide the chance to directly compare sonic and interpretative differences in specific pieces.
One specific feature of Chopin's œuvre is a peculiar synthesising of different genres. Some etudes, for example, display characteristics of a nocturne (the E major and E-flat minor from op. 10 and the C-sharp minor from op. 25), scherzo (the G-flat major from op. 10, which according to Anton Rubinstein is a kind of 'refined joke', and the E minor from op. 25) or an impromptu (also the G-flat major from op. 10). Chopin's etudes have been called 'immortal' works (Ignacy F. Dobrzynski). For Hugo Leichtentritt, they were 'a succession of felicitous discoveries of the capacities of the piano'; for Vladimir Jankelevitch, 'a microcosm, a miracle'; and for Mieczyslaw Tomaszewski, 'the revelation of new horizons in the domain of piano playing […].'
Krzysztof Jablonski won Third Prize at the 11th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw in 1985, as well as numerous top prizes at international piano competitions in Milan (1980), Palm Beach (1988), Monza (1988), Dublin (1988), New York (1989) and Calgary (1992), and also the Gold Medal at the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in Tel Aviv (1989).