111023 bk Cortot EU 7/10/2005 10:15am Page 4 CHOPIN, Vol. 1 ∞ Prelude in C sharp minor, Op. 45 4:12 8.111023 Recorded 4th November, 1949 Great Pianists • Cortot 24 Preludes, Op. 28 33:47 in EMI Abbey Road Studio No. 3, London ADD 1 No. 1 in C major 0:39 Matrix: 2EA 14284-1 2 No. 2 in A minor 2:06 First issued on HMV DB 21018 3 No. 3 in G major 0:55 4 No. 4 in E minor 1:54 § Prelude in D flat major, Op. 28, No. 15 4:44 5 No. 5 in D major 0:32 Recorded 30th October, 1950 6 No. 6 in B minor 1:51 in EMI Abbey Road Studio No. 3, London CHOPIN 7 No. 7 in A major 0:38 Matrix: 2EA 15166-2 8 No. 8 in F sharp minor 1:38 First issued on HMV DB 21175 9 No. 9 in E major 1:22 0 No. 10 in C sharp minor 0:28 ¶ Berceuse in D flat major, Op. 57 4:09 Preludes ! No. 11 in B major 0:29 Recorded 4th November, 1949 @ No. 12 in G sharp minor 1:04 in EMI Abbey Road Studio No. 3, London # No. 13 in F sharp major 2:41 Matrix: 2EA 14285-1A Impromptus $ No. 14 in E flat minor 0:29 First issued on HMV DB 21175 % No. 15 in D flat major 4:30 ^ No. 16 in B flat minor 1:02 Impromptus 17:59 Berceuse & No. 17 in A flat major 2:45 • No. 1 in A flat major, Op. 29 3:47 * No. 18 in F minor 0:47 ª No. 2 in F sharp major, Op. 36 5:01 ( No. 19 in E flat major 1:08 º No. 3 in G flat major, Op. 51 4:32 ) No. 20 in C minor 1:24 ⁄ Fantasie-Impromptu in C sharp minor, Op. 66 4:39 Tarantelle ¡ No. 21 in B flat major 1:33 Recorded 5th July, 1933 ™ No. 22 in G minor 0:42 in EMI Abbey Road Studio No. 3, London £ No. 23 in F major 0:40 Matrices: 2B 5222-1, 5224-2, 5223-2 and 5225-1 ¢ No. 24 in D minor 2:30 First issued on HMV DB 2021 and 2022 Recorded 22nd - 23rd March, 1926 in HMV Studio A, Hayes ¤ Tarantelle in A flat major, Op. 43 3:11 Matrices: Cc 8168-1, 8157-3, 8158-2, 8170-1, Recorded 13th May, 1931 8169-2, 8159-1, 8160-3 and 8161-3 in Studio C, Queen’s Small Hall, London First issued on HMV DB 957 through 960 Matrix: 0B 882-1 Alfred Cortot First issued on HMV DA 1213 1926-1950 Recordings 8.111023 4 111023 bk Cortot EU 7/10/2005 10:15am Page 2 Alfred Cortot (1877-1962) attempt, reissued here, appears to be his first electrical graceful No. 1 … and rather a lot of supererogatory recording made for HMV. In March 1925 Cortot was notes in the middle of No. 2, which, however, is perhaps Chopin Vol. 1 the first pianist to make an issued electrical recording, the best of the four, the latter part being incomparably made for Victor. The Preludes heard here were pearly’. Compared to many modern performances the The son of a French father and Swiss mother, Alfred the Ecole Normale de Musique for which he appointed recorded in HMV’s Studio A at Hayes on 22nd and 23rd Impromptus sound far from ‘businesslike’. Cortot was born in Nyon, Switzerland, in 1877. During a hand-picked staff. Cortot himself taught there until March 1926 on Cortot’s preferred Pleyel piano. (CD In the years immediately following the end of the his childhood the family moved to Paris and at the age 1961, and his most famous students include Magda issues by EMI of parts of this recording cite the Second World War Cortot was not popular, owing to his of nine young Alfred joined the Paris Conservatoire, Tagliaferro, Clara Haskil and Yvonne Lefébure. recording date as 7th April 1926, but this seems to be connections with the Vichy government. Only a few where he studied piano first with Emile Descombes Cortot was a great musician whose interpretations incorrect). These early electrical recordings were weeks after the War ended Cortot wrote to the (1829–1912) and, from the age of fifteen, with Louis were often on a spiritual level. He managed to convey a received with praise, particularly for the quality of Gramophone Company in London asking to make Diémer (1843–1919). Cortot made his début in 1897 depth of meaning through his playing and became recorded sound. It is therefore uncertain why Cortot recordings, in particular to finish a recording of the with Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, associated with the works of Schumann, Debussy and recorded the Preludes complete again on 5th December complete works of Chopin, which he had begun in and gave piano duet recitals with Edouard Risler particularly Chopin. When he played Rachmaninov’s 1927 (in Studio C of the Small Queen’s Hall), on the 4th France in 1942, for the centenary of Chopin’s death in (1873–1929), playing arrangements for four hands of Piano Concerto No. 3 with Leopold Stokowski and the June 1928 (in Studio D of the Small Queen’s Hall from 1949. Although a contract was drawn up in 1946, it was music by Wagner. His enthusiasm for the German Philadelphia Orchestra in 1920, however, one reviewer Kingsway Hall) and on 11th December 1928 (in Studio not until November 1949 that the recordings of the composer led to his appointment as choral coach, then passed a comment repeatedly used in descriptions of C of the Small Queen’s Hall). Prelude in C sharp minor, Op. 45, and the Berceuse, assistant conductor at Bayreuth, working under Felix Cortot’s playing, ‘Alfred Cortot explores the spiritual Cortot recorded Chopin’s Tarantelle Op. 43 at least Op. 57, heard here were made, as he was giving Mottl and Hans Richter. Cortot’s experiences in depths of music. In the most genuine and unaffected seven times, and six of these recordings were published. anniversary performances of Chopin at the Salle Pleyel Bayreuth left him eager to introduce Wagner’s music to way he is among the most poetic of pianists.’ One of these was made at the 5th July 1933 session at in Paris in October 1949. He had previously recorded French audiences, and in 1902 he founded the Société Reference is often made to Cortot’s technical which the four Impromptus were also recorded, but the the Prelude on 10th October 1947 but this was not de Festivals Lyriques, through which in May of the inaccuracy in his recordings, but to a musician of his version heard here is the one made two years earlier. issued at the time, whilst the Berceuse had been same year he conducted the Paris première of stature, the message of the music was paramount. It The four Impromptus from 1933 was Cortot’s only recorded at the marathon session of 5th July 1933 and in Götterdämmerung. The following year he organized should also be remembered that if the artist was not published version (a later set from September 1943 was Paris in 1943, but neither was released. another society, enabling him to give performances of satisfied with a 78rpm side he could record it over again not issued). A contemporary review found the playing major works such as Brahms’s German Requiem, until he was. Like Anton Rubinstein, Cortot always had to be ‘too businesslike, too cavalier for the gentle, © 2005 Jonathan Summers Liszt’s St Elisabeth, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis and an image in his mind by which the mood of the work Wagner’s Parsifal, and not long after he became was transmitted to the listener. For the recording of conductor of the Société Nationale, promoting works Chopin’s Preludes heard here he offered his poetic by contemporary French composers. adumbrations of the moods such as ‘Waiting feverishly Cortot was a multi-faceted musician, a conductor for the loved one’ for No. 1; ‘The road to the abyss’ for Producer’s Note and chamber music player as well as solo pianist. He No. 16 and ‘The snow falls, the wind howls, the formed a famous piano trio with Jacques Thibaud and tempest rages, but in my sad heart there is a more This volume is the first of five devoted to Cortot’s 78-rpm era recordings of Chopin. The series will feature at least Pablo Casals, but it was as a pianist that he became terrible storm’ for No. 8. Interestingly, a reviewer of one version of every published Chopin solo work the pianist recorded during the period, and will also include some renowned. He was appointed by Gabriel Fauré to a Cortot’s 1933 version of No. 8 thought it ‘can only be which were unissued on shellac discs. teaching post at the Paris Conservatoire, but was in compared to lightning, or to a rapid, crystal-clear Cortot recorded many of these works several times over, and the emphasis here will be on versions which have such demand as a performer that he was invariably stream scintillating in the sun’. not been reissued quite as frequently as others. For example, the 1926 early electric recording of the Preludes has away on tour. In 1918 he made his first tour of Cortot recorded many of Chopin’s works many been chosen over the more commonly-known 1933 remake.