There are as many ways to play Chopin as there are pianists, but there are certain schools of Chopin playing that have historically dominated the field. In this 2009 Musikproduktion Dabringhaus und Grimm disc, Elisabeth Leonskaja shows herself to be a representative of the Russian school of Chopin playing. In a program mixing the four Scherzos with five Nocturnes and the Fantaisie-Impromptu, the Russian pianist presents Chopin as a composer of Sturm und Drang Romanticism more suitable for the opera stage than the drawing ...
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There are as many ways to play Chopin as there are pianists, but there are certain schools of Chopin playing that have historically dominated the field. In this 2009 Musikproduktion Dabringhaus und Grimm disc, Elisabeth Leonskaja shows herself to be a representative of the Russian school of Chopin playing. In a program mixing the four Scherzos with five Nocturnes and the Fantaisie-Impromptu, the Russian pianist presents Chopin as a composer of Sturm und Drang Romanticism more suitable for the opera stage than the drawing room, but her approach works. Leonskaja has virtuosity to burn -- nothing in the tremendously difficult Scherzos slows her down -- and a warmly sonorous and richly detailed tone that ideally suits the Nocturnes. It is her interpretations, though, that ultimately make her performances so successful. There is reckless bravery in her Scherzos, the kind of impetuosity that dares all to win all, that fits the pieces perfectly, and her emotionally sensitive readings of the Nocturnes are so...
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