MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger


 REVIEW


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

Not available in the USA

alternatively
CD: Crotchet

 


Cortot - HMV Recordings 1931-48
Carl Maria von WEBER (1786-1826)
Piano Sonata: No. 2 in A flat, J199/Op. 39 (1816) [23:21]
Franz SCHUBERT (1797-1828)
Ländler D790 [8:56]
Franz LISZT (1811-1886)
Piano Sonata in B minor (1852-53) [25:23]
Légendes; No.2 - 'St Francis de Paule walking on the water' S175 [7:38]
3 Concert Studies - La leggierezza from S144 [4:27]
Franz SCHUBERT (1797-1828)
Litanei auf das Fest Aller Seelen D343 arranged by Alfred Cortot [3:39]
Johannes BRAHMS (1833-1897)
Wiegenlied Op.49 no.4 arranged by Alfred Cortot [2:41]
Alfred Cortot (piano)
rec. Small Queen's Hall, London, 1931 (Liszt La leggierezza), 1929 (Liszt sonata), EMI Abbey Road, Studio 3, 1937 (Landler, Litanei, Légendes No.2); 1939 (Weber), 1948 (Brahms)
NAXOS HISTORICAL 8.112012 [76:04]

 

Not available in the USA

alternatively
CD: Crotchet AmazonUK
Download: Classicsonline

Fryderyk CHOPIN (1810-1849)
Piano Sonata No.2 in B flat minor Op.35 (1839) [17:36]
Robert SCHUMANN (1810-1856)
Kinderszenen Op.15 (1838) [17:15]
Waldszenen Op.82 No.7 - Vogel als Prophet [2:36]
Carnaval Op.9 (1834) [25:29]
Alfred Cortot (piano)
rec. EMI Abbey Road, Studio 3, 1953 and 1948 (Vogel als Prophet)
NAXOS HISTORICAL 8.111327 [62:56]
Experience Classicsonline


Naxos continues its own restoration of Cortot's recordings with this brace. The cover art may have changed but the rationale is unbending; good programming, fine transfers. The first disc under discussion takes that seismic, pioneering 1929 Liszt Sonata recording, the first ever. It has never been surpassed for its sheer speed, just one of the most startling components of this quiveringly magnetic, ultra-Romanticised performance, one demarcated by some digital limitations and a kinetic, tersely driven spontaneity. It's galvanising, if exhausting. The Weber sonata recording is an example of classic Cortot. It enshrines playing of ripe and rich colouration, ineffable touch, and powerful sympathy for the idiom, but also a number of mis-hits that will prove irksome to the more fastidious listener. This volume also gives us some more elevated examples of Cortot's non-Chopin repertoire. The Légende and La leggierezza are fully the equal of the Sonata in their kaleidoscopic evocations whilst his own arrangement of Schubert's Litanei auf das Feur Aller Seelen is a study in tonal warmth, the Ländler D790 shows his buoyancy and rhythmic vitality.

The companion disc gives, in part, his 'Last Words' on canonic repertoire. Kinderszenen was a discographic constant; recorded in1935, 1947 and here in 1953. This final traversal is artful and laced with expansive rubati, richly characterised and strongly voiced. It builds to a moving envoi, having given an unsentimentalised Träumerei, a staunchly voiced Ritter vom Steckenpferd and a Furchtenmachen that focuses on its eruptiveness and almost spectral fright, as well as eloquently controlled pedalling in Der Dichter spricht. Cortot also set down Carnaval three times - 1923, 1928 and, here, once again, 1953. This last recording is a noble study but vitiated by wrong notes to such an extent that it does intrude; approximations in the Marche des Davidsbündler are the order of the day, not the exception. But if you can listen through these well-worn Cortotisms you will still find much to excite the poetic instinct, albeit the early electric of 1928 is the place to go for a more comprehensive account of his way with the work.

The Chopin Second Sonata received no fewer than five recordings; 1928, 1933, 1952, 1953 (this one) and 1956. It was a strenuous two days' recording in May 1953 for the seventy-five year old pianist because he set down all these three strenuous works in that period. The Sonata is subject to Cortot's arsenal of emendations - including quite a few added bass octaves - but the tonal and expressive qualities of the playing are richly intact, even in this near valedictory statement. For all the digital slips the power and refinement of the playing are never in doubt, not least in the reverentially spun B section of the Funeral March. Again you will need the earlier recordings for a fuller and more comprehensive example of his playing of the Sonata - but this recording is no mere pendant, no matter what the failings may be.

Naxos's transfers are good. When comparison has allowed I've listened to them alongside EMI's own restorations, not least in their Icon box (see review); Naxos retains a higher grain of surface noise but EMI's own transfer seems cut at a lower level (the Liszt Sonata); the EMI is steelier than the Naxos in the Légende, with the latter preferable; or can be steelier. La leggierezza is much more 'present' in Naxos's work,

Jonathan Woolf

Reviews of other Cortot recordings on Naxos Historical

 
 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.