111245 bk Cortot 5 EU 12/11/06 3:26 PM Page 5 8.111245 Great Pianists • Cortot ADD Also available CHOPIN Ballades Nocturnes Producer’s Note 8.111035 8.111065 The sources for the transfers on this final release in our series of Cortot’s 78 rpm era Chopin recordings were Victor “Z” pressings for the Ballades, a laminated Australian HMV for the 1929 recording of the Op. 9, No. 2 Nocturne, and British HMV shellacs for the remainder. In keeping with the aim of this series to present, wherever possible, versions of recordings which have not been reissued often, if at all, the 1929 set of Ballades has been chosen over the more familiar 1933 remake, while the 1949 re-recording of Op. 9, No. 2 has not previously been Alfred Cortot available on CD outside of Japan. 1929 - 1951 Recordings Mark Obert-Thorn 8.111245 5 8.111245 6 111245 bk Cortot 5 EU 12/11/06 3:26 PM Page 2 Fryderyk CHOPIN (1810-1849) 7 Nocturne No. 4 in F major, Op. 15 No. 1 4:33 Alfred Cortot (1877-1962) writer Adam Mickiewicz, emerge from Cortot’s hands only recorded six of the nineteen Nocturnes. On 4th Recorded 17th October, 1951 and mind like unfolding sagas. The passion and November 1949 he recorded the Trois Nouvelles 1 Ballade No. 1 in G minor, Op. 23 8:48 in EMI Abbey Road Studio No. 3, London CHOPIN: Ballades • Nocturnes emotion, poetry and tenderness he brings to these works Etudes, Prelude in C sharp minor, Op. 45, a couple of are all hallmarks of his playing. The overwhelming Waltzes and the Nocturne in E flat, Op. 9 No. 2. The Recorded 7th June, 1929 in Studio C, Matrix: 2EA 16022-1A The son of a French father and Swiss mother, Alfred taught there until 1961; his most famous students climaxes and perorations give a true sense of a complete twenty-year interval between the two recordings of this Queen’s Small Hall, London First issued on HMV DB 21447 Cortot was born in Nyon, Switzerland in 1877. During included Magda Tagliaferro, Clara Haskil and Yvonne drama being revealed to the listener. A contemporary work shows a difference in sound quality but very little Matrices: Cc 16213-2A and 16214-4 his childhood the family moved to Paris and young Lefébure. critic wrote of these recordings, ‘Here is a fine mind at difference in interpretation. First issued on HMV DB 1343 8 Nocturne No. 5 in F sharp major, Op. 15 No. 2 3:22 Alfred joined the Paris Conservatoire at the age of nine Cortot was a great artist whose interpretations were work upon the wonderful imaginings of the greatest of Two takes of the Nocturne in F minor, Op. 55 No. 1, Recorded 20th April, 1948 where he studied piano first with Emile Descombes often on a spiritual level. He managed to convey a great writers for the piano. You need neither the book were recorded on 9th October 1947 and three takes of 2 Ballade No. 2 in F major, Op. 38 6:53 in EMI Abbey Road Studio No. 3, London (1829–1912) and, from the age of fifteen, with Louis depth of meaning through his playing and became references, the “interpretations”; … all you need is the its companion, the E flat Op. 55 No. 2 on 15th October Diémer (1843–1919). Cortot made his début in 1897 associated with the works of Schumann, Debussy and Recorded 11th March, 1929 in Studio C, Matrix: 0EA 12932-1 freedom of the city of your own imagination; and I think 1947. The 20th February 1948 saw Cortot back at with Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, particularly Chopin. However, when he played that only the pianist can get the last drop of delight out Abbey Road Studios where he recorded two takes of the Queen’s Small Hall, London First issued on HMV DA 1923 Op. 37, and gave piano duet recitals with Edouard Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with Leopold of this music.’ Nocturne in F sharp, Op. 15 No. 2. Also at the session Matrices: Cc 16215-1 and 16216-1 Risler (1873–1929) playing arrangements for four Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1920 one During this same period Cortot set down his famous Cortot recorded his own arrangement of Bach’s First issued on HMV DB 1344 9 Nocturne No. 7 in C sharp minor, Op. 27 No. 1 4:40 hands of music by Wagner. His enthusiasm for the reviewer passed a comment repeatedly used in version of Liszt’s Piano Sonata in B minor on 13th March Toccata and Fugue in D minor, but this was never Recorded 17th October, 1951 German composer led to his appointment as choral descriptions of Cortot’s playing, ‘Alfred Cortot 1929 and at the end of this session recorded two short works issued. It was not until more than three years later that 3 Ballade No. 3 in A flat major, Op. 47 6:43 in EMI Abbey Road Studio No. 3, London coach, then assistant conductor at Bayreuth working explores the spiritual depths of music. In the most of Chopin, the Waltz in C sharp minor, Op. 64 No. 2, Cortot recorded the companion to this Nocturne, the Recorded 11th March, 1929 in Studio C, Matrix: 2EA 16023-1A under Felix Mottl and Hans Richter. Cortot’s genuine and unaffected way he is among the most (available on 8.111035) and the Nocturne in E flat one in F major Op. 15 No. 1, but the session also experiences in Bayreuth left him eager to introduce poetic of pianists.’ Queen’s Small Hall, London First issued on HMV DB 21447 major, Op. 9 No. 2. A week later Cortot was back in the produced the Nocturne in C sharp minor, Op. 27 No. 1, Wagner’s music to French audiences, and in 1902 he Between 4th and 9th July 1933 Cortot recorded a studio on 19th March recording César Franck’s also from a first take and Chopin’s Barcarolle, Op. 60. Matrices: Cc 16217-1A and 16218-1 founded the Société de Festivals Lyriques, through huge amount of Chopin’s music for HMV and during Prélude, Chorale et Fugue and Schumann’s Etudes Cortot’s phrasing, colourful tonal palette and singing First issued on HMV DB 1345 0 Nocturne No. 15 in F minor, Op. 55 No. 1 4:33 which in May of the same year he conducted the Paris the following two days he recorded both the B minor Symphoniques, Op. 13, which he had already attempted tone in the F major and C sharp minor Nocturnes could Recorded 9th October, 1947 première of Götterdämmerung. The following year and B flat minor piano sonatas as well as the Four on 6th March. At the end of this session he made further teach a singer a thing or two, while the dramatic middle 4 Ballade No. 4 in F minor, Op. 52 9:45 in EMI Abbey Road Studio No. 3, London Cortot organised another society enabling him to give Ballades. However, Cortot had already recorded the takes of the two short Chopin works and it was from this sections of these works explode in anguish or ecstasy. Recorded 11th March, 1929 in Studio C, Matrix: 2EA 12398-2 performances of major works such as Brahms’s Four Ballades four years earlier in 1929 and that is the session that the Nocturne in E flat, Op. 9 No. 2, was One never tires of listening to Cortot; practically Queen’s Small Hall, London First issued on HMV DB 6730 Requiem, Liszt’s St Elisabeth, Beethoven’s Missa recording presented here. They were recorded on 11th issued. every bar he plays has something of unusual interest or Solemnis and Wagner’s Parsifal and not long after he March 1929 in Studio C of the Small Queen’s Hall on Matrices: Cc 16219-1A and 16220-1A Cortot was not popular in the years immediately beauty in it. Returning to his interpretations after a became conductor of the Société Nationale, promoting his preferred Pleyel piano. Generally he recorded each following the end of the Second World War owing to period, one realises what a fertile mind this great artist First issued on HMV DB 1346 ! Nocturne No. 16 in E flat major, Op. 55 No. 2 4:35 works by contemporary French composers. of the eight sides twice, but had a few more attempts at his connections with the Vichy government. Only a few had, how natural his interpretations unfold before the Recorded 15th October, 1947 Cortot was a multi-faceted musician, a conductor the second side of the First and Third Ballades. The weeks after the War ended Cortot wrote to the listener in all their perfectly proportioned glory. As one 5 Nocturne No. 2 in E flat major, Op. 9 No. 2 4:20 in EMI Abbey Road Studio No. 3, London and chamber music player as well as solo pianist. He Second Ballade went without a problem and both sides Gramophone Company in London requesting to make critic wrote of him in 1930, ‘Cortot is the balanced artist Recorded 19th March, 1929 in Studio C, Matrix: 2EA 12434-2 formed a famous piano trio with Jacques Thibaud and were issued from first takes. He was obviously not recordings, in particular to finish a recording of the about whose every phrase there is a tone of distinction ... Queen’s Small Hall, London First issued on HMV DB 6730 Pablo Casals, but it was as a pianist for which he satisfied with his recording of the First Ballade as he complete works of Chopin (which he had begun in No artist is without defects, but he is ripe, scholarly, Matrix: Cc 16227- 2 became renowned.