I've been listening very closely, (one doesn't have a choice, but more
on that later), to the new DG recording of the Chopin Piano Concertos
with Krystian Zimerman and his hand-picked Polish Festival Orchestra.
(DG457585)

As much as I am a fan of Zimerman, (the Chopin Ballades, Liszt's Sonata,
the Debussy Preludes), I can't say that I'm sold on his new recording of
these concertos.

Zimerman both plays and directs, and I found myself (at first) captivated
by the unusually earnest handling of the orchestral accompaniment:  any
tidbit of color, delicious suspension, or moment of counterpoint that
Zimerman can find is delivered freshly-minted and boldly underlined.
But....

Much like some of Sinopoli's interesting yet ultimately frustrating
re-assessments of the orchestral literature, Zimerman digs so deep that,
oh wait!

-imho-

anyway, Zimerman digs so deep that one ends up no longer able to see the
daylight.  Take the orchestral introduction to the Larghetto of the 2nd
concerto as an example of what I mean:  it's so weighted down with an
almost Brucknerian(!) profundity that it ceases to be an anticipatory
gesture and becomes just another episode in a series of fascinating but
ultimately disjunct musical episodes.

Zimerman's uncharacteristic fussiness spills over into his piano playing
as well.  Grace notes are lingered over to point where one cannot tell the
grace note from the actual note.This rhythmic distortion is most notable
in the Larghetto from the 2nd concerto and the extended lyrical sections
in the Allegro Maestoso of the 1st.

The sound:  If the orchestral accompaniment wasn't uniquely imposing,
passionate, and dynamically-contrasted enough as a result of Zimerman's
overall conceptual dusting-off of these concerti, well, the close-up
recording heightens the effect--and I for one was left feeling more
claustrophobic than invigorated.  I pity the yuppie that buys this CD
to set an intimate, benign mood!

But perhaps, that's what Zimerman and Co. have intended.

John Smyth