Chopin: Nocturnes (1991)

Ivan Moravec was incapable of playing a note, any note, that was anything less than beautiful -- not just superficially beautiful but truly beautiful, bone deep, soul deep, "truth is beauty and beauty truth" beautiful. And when he strings each note, each lustrous pearl of a note, into phrases which sing and sigh and cry, each phrase becomes more beautiful even than each individual note. And when each phrase is joined in bliss with harmony, and then form, and then into a single luminous whole, then each work becomes an act ... Read More

Ivan Moravec was incapable of playing a note, any note, that was anything less than beautiful -- not just superficially beautiful but truly beautiful, bone deep, soul deep, "truth is beauty and beauty truth" beautiful. And when he strings each note, each lustrous pearl of a note, into phrases which sing and sigh and cry, each phrase becomes more beautiful even than each individual note. And when each phrase is joined in bliss with harmony, and then form, and then into a single luminous whole, then each work becomes an act of love and, not incidentally, as perfect a recording of a Chopin Nocturne as we are likely to hear in this world or the next.Seriously! Try the Opus 27 twins, the C sharp minor and the D flat major. Under Moravec's hands, the C sharp minor starts tenderly, almost tentatively, grows agitated, dances at its climax, collapses into a wonderful cadenza, and resigns itself to the now shattered opening. Listen to the way Moravec phrases the opening, to the way he builds the climax, to the... Read Less