5906395034680

Chopin: Best Mazurka Performances 1927–2015

Sztompka; Czerny-Stefanska; Fou Ts'ong; Argerich

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Format: 2CD

Cat No: NIFCCD635-636

Release Date:  14 January 2022

Label:  NIFCCD

Packaging Type:  Brilliant Case (Jewel Case size, Holds 2 CDs)

No of Units:  2

Barcode:  5906395034680

Genres:  Classical  Solo Instrumental  

  • Description

    This newly curated 2CD set features the best performances of
    mazurkas from the Polish Radio Awards archives of the International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw during the years 1927–2015.



    Polish Radio has broadcast the Chopin Competition from the very beginning but in 1927 the transmissions were not yet recorded. Polish Radio, which had only come on air two years earlier (1925), joined in the promotion of the competition idea, which was the subject of many emotive debates and polemics in Polish cultural life at the time.



    The public broadcaster decided to fund a regular prize for the best performance of mazurkas. That was the first distinction of its kind at the Competition. The others were established in later years: for polonaise (1960, Fryderyk Chopin Society), for concerto (1980, Warsaw Philharmonic) and for sonata (2010, Krystian Zimerman).



    Although Polish Radio, the Fryderyk Chopin Institute and the State Archives are not in possession of any official document establishing the prize, from 1927 it became an enduring part of the history of the Warsaw competition.



    Not by chance was the mazurka chosen. A form often referred to as the 'quintessence of Polishness', it demands a familiarity with and feel for Polish national dances —as Artur Rubinstein put it—of what 'comes between the second and third beats'. In simple terms, it is the art of distinguishing the mazurka from the waltz.



    Chopin himself, when asked why he played a work in triple time as if it had four beats in the bar, replied provocatively that it was out of an attachment to the national tradition. That did not settle the matter.



    Featuring 'The Radio Fifteen', the performers are:



    1927: Henryk Sztompka
    1932: Alexandre Uninsky
    1937: Yakov Zak
    1949: Halina Czerny-Stefanska
    1955: Fou Ts'ong
    1960: Irina Zaritskaya
    1965: Martha Argerich
    1970: Garrick Ohlsson
    1975: Krystian Zimerman
    1980: Dang Thai Son, Ewa Poblocka
    1985: Marc Laforet
    2005: Rafal Blechacz
    2010: Daniil Trifonov
    2015: Kate Liu


  • Tracklisting

      Disc 1

      Side 1

      • 1. "Mazurkas: in E minor, Op. 41 No. 1
      • 2. "A flat major, Op. 41 No. 3"
      • 3. "G major, Op. 50 No. 1"
      • 4. "A flat major, Op. 50 No. 2"
      • 5. "C sharp minor, Op. 50 No. 3"
      • 6. "F sharp minor, Op. 6 No. 1"
      • 7. "C sharp minor, Op. 63 No. 3"
      • 8. "C minor, Op. 30 No. 1"
      • 9. "C sharp minor, Op. 63 No. 3"
      • 10. "D major, Op. 33 No. 3"
      • 11. "A minor, Op. 17 No. 4"
      • 12. "A minor, Op. 67 No. 4"
      • 13. "C major, Op. 68 No. 1"
      • 14. "C minor, Op. 56 No. 3"
      • 15. "A minor, Op. 59 No. 1"
      • 16. "F minor, Op. 68 No. 4"
      • 17. "G sharp minor, Op. 33 No. 1"
      • 18. "D major, Op. 33 No. 3"
      • 19. "C sharp minor, Op. 50 No. 3"
      • 20. "A minor, Op. 59 No. 1"
      • 21. "A flat major, Op. 59 No. 2"
      • 22. "F sharp minor, Op. 59 No. 3"
      • 23. "E minor, Op. 41 No. 1"
      • 24. "A flat major, Op. 41 No. 3"
      • 25. "C sharp minor, Op. 41 No. 4"

      Disc 2

      • 1. "Mazurkas: in G minor, Op. 24 No. 1"
      • 2. "C major, Op. 24 No. 2"
      • 3. "B flat minor, Op. 24 No. 4"
      • 4. "A minor, Op. 59 No. 1"
      • 5. "A flat major, Op. 59 No. 2"
      • 6. "F sharp minor, Op. 59 No. 3"
      • 7. "A minor, Op. 59 No. 1"
      • 8. "A flat major, Op. 59 No. 2"
      • 9. "F sharp minor, Op. 59 No. 3"
      • 10. "G sharp minor, Op. 33 No. 1"
      • 11. "D major, Op. 33 No. 3"
      • 12. "C major, Op. 33 No. 2"
      • 13. "B minor, Op. 33 No. 4"
      • 14. "B major, Op. 56 No. 1"
      • 15. "C major, Op. 56 No. 2"
      • 16. "C minor, Op. 56 No. 3"
      • 17. "B major, Op. 56 No. 1"
      • 18. "C major, Op. 56 No. 2"
      • 19. "C minor, Op. 56 No. 3"
      • 20. "B major, Op. 56 No. 1"
      • 21. "C major, Op. 56 No. 2"
      • 22. "C minor, Op. 56 No. 3"