Ivan Moravec
           Chopin

* Sonata in b-flat, op. 35
* Berceuse, op. 57
* Ballade No. 4 in f, op. 52
* Mazurka in E, op. 6/3
* Mazurka in b-flat, op. 24/4
* Mazurka in D-flat, op. 30/3
* Fantaisie in f, op. 49

Ivan Moravec (piano)
Vox VXP7908 Total time: 64:02

Summary for the Busy Executive: Some of the best Chopin playing you will
ever hear.

Moravec has long held the reputation of a musician's musician.  In an
age of flashy fingers and little else, he stands for the highest service
to a composer's work.  Artistically, he effaces himself almost completely.
When I think of Moravec, I don't think of a musical instrument, but of
a musical mind.

Chopin's music, like Bach's and Debussy's, can travel many different
interpretive paths, but his performers tend to fall into two large
categories.  The first I could call the Individualists: those concerned
with creating their Chopin.  Extreme examples of this type might be
Olsson and Argerich.  The interpreters in the other category seem to
"just play." The music sounds as if it comes to you directly from Chopin's
brain.  Rubinstein represents the epitome of this player.  Of course,
things aren't really so clear-cut.  Players spread out along an interpretive
spectrum.  However, I should add that neither approach is inherently
better than the other.  Both have their pitfalls.  In the first, the
performer gets in the way of the music, rather than illuminates it.
In the second, the performer makes no music at all.

Moravec, while definitely an individual, stands closer to Rubinstein
than to Argerich.  Nevertheless, one hears more intention, more intellect
if you will, in Moravec than in Rubinstein.  Moravec gives the impression
of more study than Rubinstein's "singing bird." Nevertheless, he also
manages to convey the zaniness of Chopin's structural frame as well as
clearly delineate it.  This comes out most forcefully in the so-called
"funeral-march" sonata, a piece which has confused many great musicians,
including Schumann, who (although he enjoyed it) regarded it as a suite
of Chopin's usual run of salon pieces, rather than a sonata.  Shaw,
however, admired the structure.  Moravec plays through the first movement
in such a way that justifies Chopin's designation.  You can see why
Chopin thought of it in terms of sonata form - the development of two
subject groups of differing keys and character (in fact, a lot of Chopin's
non-sonatas work this way).  The sonata signposts are a bit mixed up,
compared to Haydn almost willfully placed, but the sonata's essential
point of contrast and development is kept.  The second-movement scherzo,
on the other hand, is almost classically chaste in its broad outlines,
even though the new wine in the old bottle is pure Chopin.  Moravec melts
your heart in the trio, with a gorgeous singing line.  Allusion to the
trio, as in some of Beethoven's symphonic scherzos, briefly turns up in
the coda.

I may have listened to the slow movement funeral march too many times
to really hear it.  It's certainly a bold stroke, but it seems to me
very difficult to shape.  Some pianists turn it into Mussorgsky's "Bydlo"
from Pictures, making the procession approach and recede in one long
span.  I admit the effectiveness of the strategy, but it's become a
cliche and, in the first place, not what Chopin wrote.  Moravec manages
to follow the score and keep interest.  The fleet finale, lasting less
than two minutes, is a wonder, with harmony and tonality largely in
shreds.  Moravec shapes it.  One other thing: Moravec has a fantastic
sense of harmonic movement and voice-leading.  He almost never just plays
chords.  Whether from deliberation or instinct, he manages to string
together constituent notes of successive chords to give you a line,
wholly unexpected.  This ability first attracted me to Moravec's work.
He was playing (I think) the Liszt sixth Hungarian Rhapsody.  By emphasizing
the bass line near strategic cadences, he transformed the usual showpiece
into real music.

The Berceuse, with the Bolero, is a genuine Chopin rarity. Not only did
Chopin write only one, but you can see why pianists avoid it - "simple"
music of horrendous interpretive difficulty.  Its main problem is that
it almost never changes key or significantly vary the left hand.  In
that regard, it's almost minimalist.  How do you keep interest?  Moravec
does so by hesitating at the right moments - the ones where the possibility
of change becomes apparent, thus building in a necessary, though low-key
tension (this is, after all, a lullaby) as you wonder about the outcome.

I find the fourth the most ruminative of Chopin's Ballades.  This sort
of thing is right up Moravec's street.  Compared to some players I've
heard, Moravec understates things.  Those of you wanting your Chopin
cooked in chicken fat should avoid this.  For me, however, Moravec makes
the passion of the piece more convincing, rather than less.  The quick
parts of the piece are less an occasion for shock and awe at the grapeshot
fired from the fingers than for building an argument.  In short, the
fireworks don't interrupt the reverie as much as they show the other
side of it.

The mazurkas are fun.  Moravec takes the opening of the first in such
a way as connects with Bartok's piano dances, with shifting accents.
The second is a delicate marvel, without slipping into the fey.  Moravec
manages to hint at an underlying steel, without becoming pushy.  This
elegant restraint runs over into the third mazurka.  The hesitations in
phrasing are distinct, but never overdone.  To me, this is a model of
rubato.

My favorite work (and my favorite performance) on the CD is the f-minor
Fantaisie.  In too many hands, it doesn't come off as much of anything,
except noodling around.  Moravec delivers a powerful, moving account,
making you feel the pianistic ornaments as an intensification, rather
than a dissipation, of emotion.  It's a difficult work, in the sense
that Chopin shifts emotional gears on a dime.  Moravec matches him and
creates one gigantic, almost phantasmagoric span.

The recording has a touch more bass than I like, but only if I listen
for it.  Mostly, I'm too caught up in Moravec's music-making to notice.

Steve Schwartz