Daniel Barenboim (Deutsche Grammophon)
This recital given in Warsaw in February last year, on the eve of the composer's 200th birthday, is a far less convincing demonstration of Barenboim's credentials as a Chopin interpreter than the magnificent accounts of the two concertos reviewed above. There are, of course, things to admire: the almost Brahmsian shaping of the Op 49 Fantasia, which is revealed again as one of Chopin's most remarkable formal structures; the crystalline beauty of the line spun through both the Berceuse and the Barcarolle; the inwardness of the D flat major Nocturne, carefully nuanced yet crisply defined. The problems begin, however, with the B flat minor Sonata, which is made to seem lumpen and mannered, with Barenboim's rubato sometimes seeming almost wilful in the way it breaks up phrases. The A minor waltz receives an extra layer of expressive moulding that it really doesn't need, and the A flat major Polonaise is all over the place technically, so that passages that should be sleek and purposeful become uneven and wayward, diminishing the music's sheer scale.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/apr/21/chopin-piano-sonata-daniel-barenboim-review
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