Frédéric Chopin Year 2010 coincides with the 60th anniversary of Daniel Barenboim’s stage début, and as a pianist he has decided to devote this year to the great Romantic master of the keyboard.
Chopin was born on 1 March 1810 in a small village near Warsaw, and on the eve of the 200th anniversary of this date Barenboim gave this wildly acclaimed Warsaw recital as part of an extensive European tour.
The program comprised some of the composer’s best-known works, including the great B flat minor Sonata with its famous Funeral March, which sounded to many “as the composer may well have imagined it”.
While Chopin used to advise his piano scholars to take singing lessons, Barenboim, as an experienced conductor of operas is most familiar with the human voice as well. With his brilliant virtuosity, he lead the audience through a most colorful program, once again proving his talent for this composer.
Picture Format DVD: NTSC 16:9
Sound Formats DVD: Dolby Digital 5.1., DTS 5.1, PCM Stereo
Region Code: 0 (worldwide)
Running Time: 90:45
Disc Format: DVD 9
FSK: 0
January 2011
****
“Not especially celebrated for his Chopin...Barenboim is - it goes without saying - a towering musician who is worth hearing here...Opening with the F minor Fantasia, Barenboim is on magisterial and musically imaginative form. His almost Lisztian approach to the B flat minor Sonata is excitingly turbulent”
February 2011
“The Barcarolle and sequence of three Waltzes are quite beguiling...a magnificent and genuinely impassioned account of the A flat major Polonaise...The neat, unfussy direction makes the film a pleasure to watch.”
May 2011
“As soon as he begins the Fantaisie in F minor, Op. 49, it becomes clear that his whole approach to Chopin concerns the notes themselves; that it is naturally flexible while always conveying a steady pulse; and that he trusts the music to make its own points.”
Click on any of the works listed above for alternative recordings.
