"I'll put my cards on the table right away. This is one of the greatest Chopin recordings I've ever heard, and I've been listening to them for more than half a century. A few techical matters first. Recorded in Japan, Luisada plays a superb Yamaha piano. The sound is extraordinary, the most realistic recording of a piano I've heard. Luisada does not play all of the mazurkas, so completists will have to look elsewhere. He plays the 41 mmazurkas with opus numbers. Since the remaining ten or so are mostly inferior works, I find this to be no great loss. (There's still over two hours of music on the two cds.) There are a few departures from the traditional text here, most notably towards the end of op 7/1, a variant I've heard before (from Peter Serkin, I believe). There's also a bit of electronic tomfoolery at the end of op7/5. I won't spoil the surprise by telling you what it is. Though I don't usually like electronic manipulation this one is a stroke of genius! I haven't heard Luisada before, but he's been around a while (he was born in 1958). He recorded the mazurkas once before (for DGG). A friend of mine told me "he plays as if Artur Rubinstein never existed," but I'd go further and say "he plays as if nobody ever played these pieces before." Well, perhaps nobody except his two idols, Ignatz Friedman and Alfred Cortot, whom he refers to in the booklet. In fact I went back to listen to Friedman's recordings of the mazurkas, and though the interpretations (and, of course, the recorded sound) were not at all alike, I did find a similar sense of freedom and creativity. And that is what I would stress about these performances. Literalists should probably keep away, for Luisada goes his own way, infusing every single mazurka with vibrant life, variety, and sweep. As Luisada remarks, and as he plays them, these mazurkas are not "miniatures" in any sense except length. They are profoundly-moving masterpieces, taken as a whole Chopin's greatest works. Luisada takes many "liberties," but always in the service of the music. He may reinforce the bass here and there, play the left hand before the right at times, even add a note or two, but the result is always to provide a larger sense of the music's beauty and power. His pedalling is masterful: though he produces a rich a colorful sound, he never obscures individual notes, and if he plays with the rhythm, he never loses the long line.
I've made my point as best I can. For the first time, I listened to all the mazurkas straight through. I never felt any lack of variety since Luisada plays each one as a unique gem. I should also add that the cds are bargain-priced. So where's your excuse for not buying this set and settling down to a couple of hours of pure pleasure?
Track Listings (21) - Disc #1