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International Piano

This new recording of Chopin’s complete Nocturnes by Tom Hicks turns out to be an unusually rewarding project.

In terms of its special claims, Hicks has opted to use some of the variants noted in Jan Ekier’s edition (published by PWM in 2013), producing some delightful alternatives as a result. His aim was to get closer to the style of playing (and occasional improvisatory flourishes) that Chopin himself would have recognised.

That alone makes this set worth investigating, but what clinches matters is the quality of Hicks’s playing. These are lovely performances, marked by unsentimental poetry and a strong sense of structural integrity, but never short on expressive phrasing. As an example, the start of the great C minor Nocturne (Op 48 No 1) not only has nobility in terms of pace and the articulation of the right-hand melody (even Rubinstein is a little wayward here), but Hicks also pays attention to the voicing of the left-hand chords (something Pollini – for instance – seems unconcerned about). Hicks isn’t aiming for the mystical beauty of Maria João Pires in this passage but his clear-sighted eloquence is just as effective, and similar in some ways to Stephen Hough in his complete set.

Combine Hicks’s refined and intelligent pianism with his detailed exploration of the sources, and the result is engrossing (Divine Art DDX21249).