Chopin:

Piano Concerto No.1 in E minor, Op.11

Moriz Rosenthal

Berlin State Opera Orchestra

Frieder Weissmann

Piano Concerto No.2 in F-minor, Op.21

Josef Hofmann

New York Philharmonic Orchestra

Sir John Barbirolli

Not the first, second, or third recordings of Chopin's concertos one should hear — they are far too antique for that — these are recordings that one will have to hear after one gets to know and love the works. Why? Because both are vastly different but equally convincing performances by two of the greatest Polish pianists of the early years of the twentieth century: Moriz Rosenthal in the Concerto No. 1 in E minor and Josef Hofmann in the Concerto No. 2 in F minor. Rosenthal was in his time the epitome of the romantic Polish Chopin tradition — that is, he was a wildly virtuosic and extravagantly emotional player — but his time was slightly past when he recorded the E minor Concerto in the studio with the Berlin State Opera Orchestra under Frieder Weissmann in November 1930 and March 1931, and the results, while radically different from the postwar international Chopin style, are wholly persuasive if contemporary listeners can shed their preconceptions. On the other hand, Hofmann was the apex of the modern Polish Chopin style — that is, an intensely virtuosic but much more emotionally restrained player — and he was at the peak of his powers when he recorded the F minor Concerto live with the New York Philharmonic under John Barbirolli in March 1936, and his performance has the strength, sensitivity, and conviction that mark the best of the postwar Polish Chopin style. Though the overall sound is severely compromised — and though the New York Philharmonic in the F minor Concerto might as well be playing somewhere in New Jersey — the piano sound itself is decent enough so that the listener can tell what's going on at the keyboard and, in the end, that's what really matters.

Review on www.allmusic.com - April 2007

These legendary recordings from November 1930 & March 1931 in the case of No.1 and a live recording from March 1936 for No.2 are happily presented in newly restored sound and are a wonderful testimony of two piano great from an earlier generation.

This release in the archive series adds to the highly acclaimed series of recordings we have issued and are fully up to the high standard expected.