Frederic Chopin(1810-1849)
  Barcarolle in F sharp minor

Angela Lear
APR 5551
Recorded 1993
TT 74:04

Summary: Walk on by this one - neither performance nor sound is up to
snuff.

Angela Lear is a British musicologist and performing artist whose primary
love has been the study of Chopin's music.  She found that autograph
manuscripts and original sources sometimes revealed that current
performances of Chopin's music are not fully indicative of Chopin's
intentions.

Among many other considerations that flowed from Lear's research, she
hooked up with APR and released six volumes of "The Original Chopin".
For better or worse, the volumes have not sold well and APR has deleted
most of them.  On the plus side, a non-profit company named "Libra" is
in the process of making Lear's recordings available once again.

Angela Lear does her absolute best to stay out of the limelight.  She
knows what she loves to do, she does it and doesn't want to be bothered
by outside distractions.  In concert performances, she tends to play the
standard repertoire with particular emphasis on Ravel.  But Chopin is
her pride and joy, and I am excited about the prospect of listening to
her interpretion of the Barcarolle.

Sad to say, it didn't take long for my excitement to turn to abject
disappointment with the performance and sound characteristics.  I've
probably reviewed over 30 recordings of the Barcarolle, and Lear's is
at the bottom of the pile.

Lear is slow, and there are times when I feel inertia setting in.  You can
forget about tension in the music; she wants no part of it.  Just listen
as the music unfolds after the Bachian introduction to the 2nd section;
actually, with Lear there is no unfolding as the tension is benign and
remains that way far too long.

You might respond that a performance of low steam can still be very
enjoyable.  I would agree, but Lear's tendency to stagnate is beyond
reasonable levels.  Also, there are plenty of other pianists who apply
greater poignancy and lyricism to the work.

To make matters much worse, the soundstage is unattractive with a swimming
acoustic; details are hard to recognize and contours are too smooth.
There's also more to contend with - the lower end of the piano is dominant,
unclear, and booming.  That 'professionals' would place this problematic
sounding disc on the market is surprising.

Don's Conclusions: Lear's disc offers an all-Chopin program.  My sampling
of the other performances on the disc indicates that the same performance
and sound issues I found with her Barcarolle also generally apply to the
entire disc contents.  All in all, a major disappointment.

Don Satz
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