More discoveries: Bach and Chopin

Boshniakovich plays Chopin

It's often the case that recordings are a marvel in one aspect but not all. This is the case with Oleg Boshniakovich's recording of 13 Chopin nocturnes, which I discovered this morning. It has some of the clearest, smoothest melody lines I've heard since Moravec, and also a beautiful sense of tempo. However, while Moravec often leans too much to the quieter side, Boshniakovich often leans, frustratingly, to a relentlessly fixed, quite high volume level in passages where, if he varied his dynamics, his playing would be a miracle.

Oddly enough, his Nocturnes recording seems to be very much an outlier in this aspect. I listened to some other of his interpretations, and they were much more finely shaded, dynamics-wise. His Barcarolle recording is a particular highlight, and also notable for the surprising effectiveness of its fairly rapid tempo.

Anyway- here it is.

Evelyne Crochet plays Bach

I'd always maintained a distant fascination with the Well-Tempered Clavier, but struggled to find a recording which really spoke to me all the way through. It wasn't until I hit upon Evelyne Crochet's beautiful recording of Book 1 today that the WTC "clicked." There's a truly satisfying blend of sensitivity, coherence and the honesty that characterised so much 20th-century pianism.