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Review by JJ October 18, 2008 (4 of 4 found this review helpful)
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After a remarkable recording devoted to Rachmaninoff (see Opus HD magazine N°5), the Russian pianist Katia Skanavi returns in a recording of Chopin. The Chopin of the years 1843-1845, a period during which the Nocturnes, Mazurkas, and the Piano Sonata N°3 in B minor were written. The program of this magnificent recital thus opens with the Nocturnes (1843) in F minor and E flat major, followed by three Mazurkas (1843) in B major, C major and C minor. Next come the Berceuse in D flat major dating from 1844, then the famous Sonata N°3 in B minor, it too from 1844, and to conclude, three other Mazurkas from 1845, the A minor, the A flat major and the F sharp minor. Katia Skanavi grabs hold of the Polish composer’s piano music with infinite tenderness and at the same time skillfully measured dynamic. Her playing retains the memory of what is intimate without forgetting what is often disguised though always present: melancholy, one that exile cannot hide. Under her fingers, Chopin seems nearby, leaning over the piano, listening to his interpreter reinvent the beauty of his notes and works, based on playing of an extreme delicacy. For Chopin is also about the delicacy of the discourse. Be it overflowing or confident. But human above all. Katia Skanavi creates a universe in which each breath seems suspended for eternity. A world apart that only her art can construct. An art of narration, phrasing, rubato, shadow and light, carried to the purest level, that of music. In a recording of rare splendor in pure DSD, this SACD is a miracle in balance of tone and space. It is quite simply a must-have.
Jean-Jacques Millo
Translation Lawrence Schulman
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