Chopin - 14 Waltzes, Impromptus / Fantaisie-Impromptu op.66 (Rubinstein)

published: 10/01/2016

I was wondering... with classical music, where to start ? What should be the very first piece of music we should listen ?
Some great symphony maybe ?
No. We should start with something more intimate, delicate, but also with passion. Some piano piece.

I know now, I found it ! We will start with the delightful Fantaisie-Impromptu, by Chopin !
Played by Arthur Rubinstein, in 1963. Chopin music is romantic by itself, no need to overdo it, or it can quickly get pompous. Rubinstein's playing is straight and just rightly fiery, nothing overdone, it's spontaneous, I like it very much.
Spontaneous... for a pianist, I find this essential. Revealing the life which lies in the music. That's why Arthur Rubinstein is admittedly not the most virtuoso/refined/whatever musician, but nevertheless, in a large repertory, it's a real pleasure to listen to him, because his music is spontaneous and like obvious (plus other qualities of course, amongst which, a very good taste in his performances). And it's the case here with Chopin. For the same reasons, if we consider 2 extreme cases (so with their share of counterexamples where the performance may lack good taste), I prefer Martha Argerich to Claudio Arrau by a large margin (yes, let's start having hostile readers starting with my very first article :) .

Have a nice time here !

This album also contains the other impromptus by Chopin, as well as waltzes, and Chopin is the master of waltzes 🙂 , so this is an excellent first record of piano pieces by Chopin.