Chopin – Preludes, Barcarolle

Name: Chopin - Preludes, Barcarolle
SKU: CDB028E
Price: 42.99 PLN
Availability: OutOfStock

42.99zł

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Cat. No. CDB028
Music disc: CD-AUDIO

Performer:
Stanislav Bunin – piano

Disc content

Preludes op.28

nr 1 in C major – 0'43″
nr 2 in A minor – 2'05″
nr 3 in G major – 1'00″
nr 4 in E minor – 2'06″
nr 5 in D major – 0'37″
nr 6 in B minor – 1'28″
nr 7 in A major – 0'45″
nr 8 in F sharp minor – 1'57″
nr 9 in E major – 1'26″
nr 10 in C sharp minor – 0'30″
nr 11 in B major – 0'34″
nr 12 in G sharp minor – 1'19″
nr 13 in F sharp major – 2'49″
nr 14 in E flat minor – 0'32″
nr 15 in D flat major– 5'31″
nr 16 in B flat minor – 1'16″
nr 17 A flat major – 3'08″
nr 18 in F minor – 0'56″
nr 19 in E flat major – 1'39″
nr 20 in C minor – 1'42″
nr 21 in B major – 1'45″
nr 22 in g minor – 0'47″
nr 23 in f major – 0'49″
nr 24 in D minor – 2'39″

Prelude in C sharp minor op.45 – 3'59″
Barcarolle in F sharp major op.60 – 8'16

Total time – 50’48”

Prizes:

Out of stock

SKU: CDB028E Categories: All discs, National Edition serie A

Description

The cycle of 24 Preludes Op. 28 is the fruit of Chopin’s stay in Majorca in 1838 and 1839. This Mediterranean island was at that time a virgin and inhospitable land. The composer worked on the Preludes in the ruins of a deserted Carthusian monastery in Valldemosa. The monastery cell was a ‘strange place’, to quote his own words. He composed by candlelight, with a volume of Bach’s Das Wohltemperiertes Klavier at his side, conscious of the spirit of poetry with which ‘everything breathed’ there, living between ‘the rocks and the sea’ and looking at the ‘colours of the most wonderful spots, still unspoilt by onlookers’. Chopin was seriously ill at the time, having lost almost all hope for fulfilling his plans in life. It would be difficult to devise more romantic scenery to inspire the shape of a musical piece.

[…] It may be said that Chopin’s Preludes are like ‘the universe in miniature’ in which, according to Hugo Leichtentritt, ‘the richly varied moods and impressions have no parallels in the entire musical literature’.

Furthermore, ‘what is ecstatic, idyllic and imbued with the weirdness of nocturnal visions; what is mystical, capricious, charming and grandiose, landscape-like tones, despair, fury and terror, the delicate love poems and heroism – all this finds at the master’s hand a succinct and blunt expression’.

The Prelude in C sharp minor Op. 45 […]. With its dream-like expression and related, in terms of archetype, to Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, it is a concert prelude of the highest calibre. It has a ‘volatile atmosphere that is difficult to grasp’ (J. Huneker) and a cadenza with ‘a wonderfully glittering play of lights and colours which was not to be found in pre-Chopin’s music’ (Z. Jachimecki).

The Barcarolle in F sharp major Op. 60, […], is among the masterpieces of piano literature. With its 12/8 metre and ornamental melody in thirds, its ancestry may be traced to the tradition of the Italian gondola song […] with its erotic expressivity. […] Chopin’s Barcarolle may be described as a nocturne in the style of a ‘romance’. Hedley referred to it as ‘the most beautiful nocturne of all’. As such, it met with universal admiration. Its beauty has been called ‘stunning’ (H.Leichtentritt). According to John Rink it is one of ‘the most powerful and ravishing musical works of the 19th century’.

Marek Wieroński