If I Could Choose Only One Work By...CHOPIN

It Would Have To Be...24 Preludes, Op. 28
Because each one is a perfect little gem and there's nothing else quite like this extraordinary work in the entire piano repertoire.

1. Ravel: Ma Mère l’Oye (Mother Goose Ballet)
2. Bruckner: Symphony No. 7
3. Schubert: String Quintet in C major
4. Shostakovich: Symphony No. 4
5. Mahler: Symphony No. 2 “Resurrection”
6. Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker
7. Debussy: Preludes for Piano (Books 1 & 2)
8: Handel: Saul
9. Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro
10. Brahms: String Sextet No. 2 in G major
11. Vaughan Williams: Job
12. Bach: Goldberg Variations
13. R. Strauss: Four Last Songs
14. Berlioz: The Damnation of Faust
15. Haydn: “Paris” Symphonies (Nos. 82-87)
16. Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen
17. Beethoven: String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp minor
18. Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E minor

[endicot]

Thank you for mentioning Ivan Moravec. His Preludes on the old Connoisseur Society label are extraordinary.

[GingerIndiana]

I love the Preludes of course (by Ivan Moravec whose recording I bought in Prague in 1991 and immediately felt in love with...) but if I had to choose 1 piece by Chopin it would be the Barcarolle 💖🙏: this piece is quite short but very rich in it's writing and we will never get bored with it because it takes us on a journey to Venice.

[tommyward]

My favorite recording is cortot from 1933 I think, but he has a couple recordings of the set, Cortot is just so direct and forceful and full of emotion I get swept away every time I hear him play, its a little wild and imperfect but it doesn’t matter

[jensguldalrasmussen]

The Preludes was my first real introduction to Chopin (before then I'd just heard the odd bit and pieces from his output). And they have since my highschool days had a special place in my heart. No need for me to expound further on the reason for that, as others have already in their comments eloquently done so.

There are so many gorgeous recordings of the work (Cortot and Moïseiwitsch just to mention two from the old guard). For both musical and sentimental reasons I've had a strong devotion to another old school pianist, namely the Ukraino-Belgian Stefan Askenase, recording on DG (he was their mainstay Chopin-intetpreter during the 1950).

Aksenase's first piano teacher was his mother, who was a pupil of Mikuli, who in turn studied piano under Chopin. Askenase later studied in Vienna under Emil von Sauer, a Liszt pupil (talk about lineage here!). Later in life he himself had such illustré pupils as Uchida and Argerich (actually, it was Askenase's wife Anny, who emotionally suported and encouraged Argerich to return to the piano after a severe crisis, where Argerich didn't play the piano for three years).

I had one of the great concert experiences of my life, when Askenase in 1979 at the tender age of 83 gave a concert in Copenhagen. In the first half of the concert he played the three sonatas op. 10 by Beethoven. Here you encountered the very good pianist of yore, though, sometimes you clearly sensed some age-related diminishing of power both in respect to technique and interpretation. However, in the second half of the concert, Askenase played the Preludes op. 28 - and he was a man transformed. The prosaic truth might be, that he now played a work, that he had lived with possibly all, maybe 'just" most of his life - the performance was electrifying and the impression you got was, that there somehow was a direct connection to the spirit of Chopin, channeled "senkrecht von Oben" through the top of Askenase's head, through his body, into his arms and fingers and to the piano keys. It was an interpretation that touched the whole of the emotional range of the work, albeit still with some sort of reticent sobriety.
By the way, I've always in contrast to the almost contemporaneous, more outgoing Arthur Rubinstein, found, that the epithet, 'the unobtrusive virtuoso' would suit Askenase well.

DG, quite some years ago (2004), released a little box, named 'The Complete 1950's Chopin Recordings', although works of other composers also figure, fx. Mendelsohn, Schubert, Smetana and Mozart (Jed Distler of Classicstoday finds that the absolute trouvaille of the box is Askenase's recording of the Sonata K570). Besides the Preludes, I'm especially taken with his old school interpretations of the Noctunes and Waltzes. The short Rondo á la krakowiak op. 14 for piano and orchestra is another little gem.
The set can still sometimes be found on Amazon, sold for a fair price by 2nd hand dealers. In your shoes, I wouldn't hessitate to grab it while you can!

[magnuskrook]

Excellent choice, as in the previous instalments of the series. A suggestion for Schumann: the piano quintet. A superb work, which displays Schumann as the romantic piano guy and as a master of chamber music.

[arturslotwinski]

As a 3-time a month performer of Chopin Preludes (now 15, goal is 24) I feel how the last note of one prelude is an inspiration to start the next one, even some of the preludes form undetachable groups played in one flow almost with no break in between. I notice every time little murmurs across the audience when it comes to E-Minor or D-flat Major - even some sounds of being touched emotionally, little nose sniffing of the ladies being moved by the harmony and mood. On the other hand some of the preludes are so much virtuosic and mesmerising so they almost always cause and instant applause so I make a bow to the audience and to Chopin for creating such a treasure - of perfect form in micro and macro scale - as a large arch constructed with smaller forms to create a marble temple of pianism, even a kind of a story with a tragic ending on a lowest D of the piano....

[konigstephan]

''I know of nothing in music like the F minor ballade'' - James Huneker.

And I tend to agree with this famous statement. If the goal of the exercise is to keep only one work after some cataclysm, this work HAS to be the 4th ballade.

[michaelhoppe]

Totally agree, Dave. When you get to Rachmaninoff, how about “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini”? A work demonstrating his formidable technique, his mastery of the variation form, and of course delivering the Big Tune. A perfect work.

[michelangelomulieri]

I agree with Preludes! My reference recording is the Pogorelich’s one because, more than any other colleagues, he is able to demonstrate how important is in this work the search of the origin of the sound.

[ericrakestraw]

I wholeheartedly agree Chopin's Preludes are an important part of the piano literature because without them, we wouldn't have Debussy's wonderful Preludes the following century.

[graydomn]

I really have enjoyed the nocturnes. They are very relaxing and encourage a reflective state.

[HassoBenSoba]

Excellent choice, one which further highlights the "bond" between the artistic legacy of both Chopin and Debussy, whose Preludes for Piano you also chose for this series. Both created their own unique, personal, musical "cosmos" via the solo piano. One would think that, in comparison to a full orchestra, the piano is extremely limited, but it's precisely those limits that allowed Chopin and Debussy to create music of limit-less imagination. LR

[jojaspismusic]

Yes!! The Preludes! Harmonically and otherwise stunning pieces!

[Vandalarius]

Great choice! Have you done a video about an essential list of preludes? I would be interested in watching that! Chopin's, Debussy's, Alkan's and Scriabin's have to be in there!

[tommyward]

The preludes is clearly the correct pick for this in my opinion, but I don’t know if I could live without the ballades and the Cello Sonata

[joshuafruend]

Aye, there we go! I had a feeling you’d agree! Gotta love the preludes! Of course, sentimentality is another, though minor, reason I chose them; the A major prelude was the first work I ever played by Chopin when I was a young child- sparking a life-long love of the music of this amazing composer.

[GG-cupg]

Someone was complaining about a lack of choral music in the list. Here’s something! For Ligeti I’d pick Lux Aeterna. One example of his micropolyphony should be saved, and to my mind it’s most haunting when sung a cappella. The fact that this can be conceived and performed at all should move Cancrizans to reconsider. It sounds completely exotic the first time you hear it. Both beautiful and eerie.

[ericakilian]

As much as I love the nocturnes and Concerto No. 1, the choice of the Preludes to answer this question is a no doubter.

[MarauderOSU]

Good choice, Dave. And I have the Martha Argerich DG recording of them.

Schumann: I would have to go with the Piano Concerto. It is simply one of the great Romantic piano concertos, and its opening is pretty epic as well.

[aurelius]

Yes, the Preludes are an excellent choice for all the reasons mentioned, and because of the many references to some of his other genres: etude (f-sharp minor, b-flat minor, E-flat major, d minor); nocturne (F-sharp Major, D-flat Major, B-flat major); mazurka (A major); 2nd sonata (e-flat minor, c minor). Also, far from being a mere handful of loose pearls, Chopin strings the pieces together in various subtle ways (see for instance how the end of the G major anticipates the beginning of the e minor), creating an overall structure that in the hands of a discerning pianist hangs together beautifully.