Chopin's 200th Birthday - Zimerman and Pollini
The great Polish composer Frederick Chopin recently marked his 200th birthday, and to celebrate two of the world’s greatest pianists Krystian Zimerman and Maurizio Pollini – played his work to a captivated audience. Gabriele Faja went along.
The Chopin celebration was cleverly scheduled to happen on Chopin’s ‘two’ birthdays, February 22nd and March 1st - scholars have never been able to agree on the exact date.
Both artists have won the same Chopin Competition (in Warsaw) 15 years apart. Both have never looked back although Zimerman is almost Napoleonic compared to Pollini’s more tangible stage presence. And these were the two recitals of the decade, full stop.
Zimmerman’s performance on the 22nd was a thing of greatness. He chose a programme which was centred, as it has been before, around Chopin’s 2nd Sonata. He reminded us just what a wonderful palette of colours and sonorities he possesses and showed immense ability in controlling the instrument, sharing with the audience details so easily lost in other pianist’s performances and studio recordings.
Also, the infamous timing issue between bass notes and melody in Chopin was dealt with without any need for delay between each other. Fluid and horizontal yet perfectly in time – as Chopin (and Mozart) desired his music to be played. This was a great master playing in front of our eyes.
He was disturbed by someone in the first five rows several times, evidently. He turned and stared, terrifyingly, at this individual at least a dozen times and often whilst playing. Any echoes of Keith Jarrett's continuous ranting because of a coughing audience last year? Well, at least he didn’t stop and walk off. But Zimerman is a fragile figure, which he showed in the B minor Scherzo. No longer the invincible lyricism or razor-sharp passage work. A race to end it seemed, with little time for execution in the central C sharp minor motif, which leads to a climax where the Maestro didn’t feel at ease. Perhaps all the applause seeping between movements in the earlier Sonata distracted him a little too much.
He retires in 2011 so make sure you travel to wherever he plays next, because if he produces a Chopin 3rd Sonata or a Barcarolle anything like this time, you’d kick yourself for missing it. Go listen to a genius. Just don’t sit on row five.
A week later and Maurizio Pollini, the greatest pianist still alive today in terms of output and definitive recordings, payed visit to the Royal Festival Hall. This isn’t the first time this has happened. Jasper Parrott, agent for both, likes them back to back. So do I, actually.
Pollini’s recital only establishes him as the true champion of Chopin, if perhaps a little old-school. It was the Pollini of the Preludes Op 28 and Etudes Op 25, Nocturnes Op 27, which surprisingly completely dominated the evening, and the Ballade Op 23. All from the same period of Chopin’s life.
The D flat Nocturne Op 27 was completely unexpected. Here is a man who sits down with humility. He delivered perhaps the most touching performance of this piece I’ve ever heard. That was about Chopin, not about Pollini. Shame though that the rest wasn’t quite the same. The Preludes Op 28 are a funny old collection and some last as little as 20 seconds and I’m afraid to say that I couldn’t hear much Chopin in there, my mind inevitably comparing his studio recording to this live performance and finding annoying unevenness in some passages, which I guess is a big deal in a 20 second tune. Pollini’s juggling was remarkable but this was no birthday present.
In the second half the G minor Ballade was over before long and honestly I couldn’t remember much, only that I went home and listened to Horowitz playing it live on video and finding myself smiling again. It was good, yes, but in the same way that digestion is good. You don’t really notice it.
But then, almost as if we needed reminding, he sits and dominates the Etudes Op 25, launching in them with such bravura that one cannot help but think what a loss to these pieces it would be if this man didn’t exist. It was vintage Pollini right up to his slightly tired C minor Op 25 no 12. You try being 68 years old and playing like that in front of 2500 people. This man is absurd. Op 25 No 11 was something to behold for sheer speed and power and Op 25 no 10, the octaves one, was so brutal it was scary.
The audience was left breathless and so was he. Only thing is, we’ve heard it all before from this very man. I hope he returns Nocturnal. Watch out for Boulez’s 2nd Piano Sonata next year.
