Chopin: Étude Op. 10 No. 2 in A minor 'chromatique'

“Berezovsky's technical command in Godowsky is formidable” BBC Music Magazine, 1st November 2005

“the truest successor to the great Russian pianists...the most interesting Russian pianist since Emil Gilels [with] a technique that can sweep all preconceived notions or sense of musical propriety into oblivion...a prodigious virtuoso....a young Russian titan of the keyboard [who] takes even the mightiest virtuoso repertoire in his stride” The Times

“Here, uniquely, you can hear Chopin and Chopin-Godowsky side by side, marvelling or shuddering at the way Chopin's original is turned topsy-turvy and transformed into 'something rich and strange'. Recorded live, Boris Berezovsky's performances of eight of Chopin's Studies and 11 of Godowsky's arrangements beggar description.
No more formidable young pianist exists and his stunning recital balances prodigies of virtuosity with an unfaltering musical integrity. His Op 10 No 1 study is maestoso indeed, and never more so than when Godowsky's massive carillon of sound is embellished with a counterpoint as imperious as the last trump. Chopin's originals are always musically rather than sensationally characterised, the reverse of, say, Cziffra's dazzling if infamous distortions, yet Berezovsky's way with Op 10 No 5 is of a rollicking bravura that few could equal.
In the left-hand-only studies his tone conjures up Neuhaus's description of Gilels, 'rich in noble metal, a 24-carat gold that we find in the voices of the great singers' and, throughout, you are also reminded of Shakespeare's words: 'O, it is excellent / To have a giant's strength, but it is tyrannous / To use it like a giant.' Here, caught 'on the wing', there is none of that diffidence that occasionally affects Berezovsky when at his least concentrated but rather playing in the grandest of grand Russian traditions.
For encores there are Alt Wien, as warm and affectionate as Cherkassky though without a trace of whimsy, and Godowsky's teasing elaboration of the Minute Waltz. Heard on this form Berezovsky is the pianist of your dreams; and it only remains to add that he plays the third rather than the second version of Op 25 No 1 and that Warner's sound is superb.
Prolonged applause celebrates Berezovsky's phenomenal achievement.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

‘At 27, Kempf has attained something most pianists strive for over an entire lifetime ... This release can justly take its place among the very finest recordings of Chopin's Etudes.’ American Record Guide