It's good to get all the Chopin in one place but...
This is a great set to own to get a good feeling for the entirety
of Chopin's output. However, I feel (with appropriate respect to all
the other reviewers here) that one needs to dig a little deeper
for truly benchmark performances of these little miracles.
For example, try Demidenko for the Ballades and the third sonata,
check out Pollini for the Nocturnes and show Chiu a little love
for the Mazurkas and Etudes.
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The bar has been set for all solo Chopin collections
This is an absolutely fantastic set. I was lucky enough to acquire it for less than $45 when I was still a member of the Musical Heritage Society a few years ago; so Amazon's price here can definitely be beaten if one looks around.
Ashkenazi's playing is stunning, handling not only the well-known (if not overly well-known) pieces that are staples of the modern repertoire but also the obscure pieces. Chopin is notoriously difficult for even the most accomplished virtuosi, but Ashkenazi handles it all with a grace and ease. He also avoids the mistake that so many interpreters make (from amateurs to the biggest names): the tendency to play Chopin as though it were either a mathematical exercise or a dexterity contest (something Bach interpreters can also fall prey to). In other words, squeezing the depthless pathos out of the music and leaving behind only sterile--if note perfect--reproductions. (Rather like wax-work figures.)
That's not an issue here. It doesn't take too much imagination to close one's eyes and transport one's self back to an early 19th century drawing room, listening to the Master himself play his own works.
I've listened to the entire set (one of the first things I did was rip the whole set to my iPod) and the Ballades, Scherzi, Waltzes and Mazurkas are my favorites.
The Preludes, long my favorite works by the Franco-Polish maestro, are excellent, but they don't quite equal a Naxos recording by an obscure Polish pianist, named Irina Zaritzkaya, which I discovered when Naxos first debuted in '89 or '90. I've yet to hear anyone top Ms. Zaritskaya's performance and highly recommend it. (Naxos #8.550225; though it appears to be out of print, if you can find it snatch it up! It's popularity can be judged by it's "used" price on Amazon: $22, for a disc I bought for $3.99 in 1990).
Though the individual discs were recorded over a period of 10 years (from 1975 to 1985), there is a uniform quality of sound & performance that equals Mr. Ashkenazi's playing. (No wonder Brezhnev and the Politburo gave Ashkenazi his freedom, they didn't want to chase him off to the West.)
If you're a Chopin fan, this set is the bar by which all single-performer collections must be judged.
Decca's packaging is also superb. The outer box is made of thick, tough cardboard. One could also wish for comprehensive liner notes as opposed to the rather brief essay included in the track list booklet. Why Decca didn't commission a written intro from Mr. Ashkenazi himself is mysterious to me. But that the only real complaint I have about this set. A DVD would have been a nice touch, especially at nearly $100, but these are gentle complaints at worst.
The only way to really have improved on this set would have been to have made the disc SACD Hybrids, but that would have almost certainly raised the price. A good surround-sound system can get you pretty close to SACD quality anyway.
One FYI note: some people seemed to be very concered with the SPARS code (for a complete description see the en.wikipedia.org article) of art music CDs. One shouldn't be. Even the creator of the system has disowned it. The primary reason is that while digital tape recorders are relatively inexpensive, digital mixing boards are still extremely pricey. So much so that most CDs recorded digitally are mixed on analogue boards and the mastered digitally. So many CDs should have codes that read DAD. So do yourself a huge favor and simply ignore that SPARS codes altogether. Either rely on your own ears, word-of-mouth or the more intelligent Amazon.com reviewers, of which, at least for art music, there are a great many.
Unlike the assertion by one reviewer, nowhere does this set claim to be the "complete" solo piano oeuvre by the composer (I have the boxed set in front on me as I write this). It's simply titled, "The Piano Works."
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Well worth the money. Wonderful! Wonderful!
I am not a classical music expert but I am an expert when it comes to a great product. I have listened to the works of rubenstein and Horowitz, but nothing is comparable to this great collection of polands favorite son. The nocturnes are dreamy and romantic. The other pieces though not as mesmerizing have plenty of depth and feeling. This is a collection that you will listen to over and over again. Although this music is great anytime, it's especially meaningful during a light rainfall. Go ahead and make this investment. It's only $100.00. For the next 100 days save a dollar and you will have it paid for. I promise you won't be sorry. Excellent! Excellent!
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