Chopin: Arrau Heritage

The Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11, is a piano concerto written by Frédéric Chopin in 1830, when he was twenty years old. It was first performed on 12 October of that year, at the Teatr Narodowy (the National Theatre) in Warsaw, Poland, with the composer as soloist, during one of his "farewell" concerts before leaving Poland. It was the first of Chopin's two piano concertos to be published, and was therefore given the designation of Piano Concerto "No. 1" at the time of publication, even though it was actually written immediately after the premiere of what was later published as Piano Concerto No. 2.

This selection received a Grammy nomination for "Best Classical Album" and "Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (without Orchestra)." The comparative simplicity of Chopin's Op. 28 Preludes (when placed against his Etudes, for example) and their status as "miniatures" often hide the fact that they are, in fact, extremely demanding pieces, especially in interpretation. These works, probably written in homage to Johann Sebastian Bach's 'Well-Tempered Clavier,' have been the eminent domain of such great pianists as Artur Rubinstein, Vladimir Horowitz and Claudio Arrau. The Preludes now belong to young Evgeny Kissin.

Deep thought, care and love pervade this newest contribution to Arrau's Schumann cycle, just as they did all the others. The discovery for me was the Blumenstück, which if played at all (it isn't often) so easily emerges like some pretty but pale little drawing-room aquarelle. But not from Arrau. Characteristically, he reads between the lines of every bar, and discovers as much to express as in any of Schumann's wholly introspective pieces. I was amazed at the variety of mood he extracts from the work's not greatly varied figuration throughout the sequence of brief, closely related sections.