Description
Portraits of the most interesting personalities of the Second International Chopin Competition on Period Instruments open with an album of its winner, the young Canadian virtuoso, Eric Guo. The album includes the Mazurkas, Op. 59, the Waltz in A flat major, Op. 42 (fragments of the second stage recital), and the final Concerto in E minor - with the {oh!} Orchestra under the baton of Vaclav Luks. It is a valuable document and at the same time an extremely interesting picture of Eric Guo's personality, temperament, sensitivity, and his very individual yet coherent and thoughtful interpretation of Chopin's works.
In the album booklet, Marcin Majchrowski writes: 'I look through the notes from the competition auditions - the words 'delicacy' and 'calmness' recur repeatedly in them. Delicacy in the context of sound and timbre, pianistic touche. Calmness in relation to interpretative effects. Eric Guo seems unique in this respect - on the one hand, aware of the performance possibilities of period instruments; on the other, understanding that forcing dynamics or tempo brings little but a cheap effect. He simply does not chase glitz. He respects the time and space in which music materialises through the sounds produced by the piano.'
"Guo proves not only that a fortepiano can 'sing' beautifully in this music but also that it can provide ample power for the virtuoso writing." – Gramophone