Search - Chopin, Pollini :: Piano Concerto 1 / Nocturnes

Maurizio Pollini recorded the Chopin Concerto when he was still in his late teens, just after winning First Prize at the Chopin International Competition in Warsaw. It's an impressive performance for such a young pianist, showing much of the discipline that still marks Pollini's work, and perhaps even more poetry than he indulges in these days. While the ultimate prodigy performance of the Chopin Concerto is Kissin's, at age 12, Pollini's playing here is fascinating, with good assistance from the underrated Paul Kletzki and the Philharmonia. The solo pieces were recorded a few years later, and they are more variable; the polonaise in particular seems tight and unyielding. But the disc remains a valuable portrait of a major artist at the beginning of his career. --Leslie Gerber