Jan Templiner wrote:

>>Having enjoyed the BIS CD of piano/cello music by Roland Pontinen
>>and Torleif Thedeen, I noticed something tha tbugged my quite a bit:
>>Pontinen seems to bake a sport of having the right hand a bit later
>>than the left hand.  This is especially bad in the Chopin sonata's slow
>>movement.  Almost every chord on the beat is out-of-coordination.  Is
>>that some kind of artistical gimmick? A new edition of the sonata? My
>>ears?

Mike wrote in response:

>Jan, I haven't heard the recording, but I can say that it is sometimes
>appropriate for the left hand to be a little out of synch with the right
>hand in Chopin's music, and in a lot of Romantic piano music.  In good
>hands, this device can be very effective.  It allows the melody to sing
>on it's own, independently of the base line.

You will note, however, that Artur Rubinstein very rarely did this,
in contrast with the accepted performance practice of his childhood's
late-19th-century.  When he began his concert career, his interpretations
of Chopin were critically ridiculed for, among other things, his sparing
use of rubato and his general synchronization between hands.  These
tendencies, as far as I'm aware (no Rubinstein expert), only increased
later in his life, and his mature, relatively non-romantic approach,
with its focus on controlled lyricism and structural cohesion, came to
be regarded as the "right" way to approach Chopin, and Rubinstein as
the "elder statesman" of Chopin interpretation.  Go figure.  Personally,
I think Ruby's performances of the Chopin classics have yet to be matched.
Interestingly, one of his major competitors in that field (IMO), Ivan
Moravec, plays in a manner that is much more, well, *romantic*:  all fuzzy
outlines and singing tones, with frequent desynchronization and all of
that.  Yet his performances are also convincing, but very, very different.
Using the example of the Nocturnes, Ruby's set makes me feel like I'm
listening to something divinely crystalline, like light in the leaves;
Moravec's set makes me feel like I'm listening to water and air.  I guess
its a matter of personal preference, but such masterworks as Chopin's piano
pieces can handle a wide, wide variety of interpretations; as has been said
of masterpieces, 'they are too great for any one performance.' All it takes
is an open mind.:-)

- John Sisk ([log in to unmask])