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Fanfare

What we have here is a two lp collection of Chopin pieces recorded between 2009 and 2013 by a pianist whose Chopin, including these performances, has been amply praised in these pages by a series of my colleagues. Based on his annotations, I assume, Schliessmann has been repeatedly called an intellectual: interestingly, we are typically told that this trait doesn’t tarnish his playing. That playing is bold, certainly on these lps rich in tone, and virtuosic.

I was surprised by the opening of the first Ballade, which seemed to present the theme almost in pieces, as in a conversation rather than a flow. It’s an approach that works beautifully in the Scherzo in B flat minor, for instance. Perhaps an intellectual Chopin player is one who points out the structural devices more clearly than another. Mostly I am, like my colleagues, convinced, if not swept away, by Schliessmann’s rich sounding, carefully articulated playing, by his occasional tenderness as well as his almost majestic playing elsewhere. As for the recording, I note that Stephen Sutton has been given credit for digital remastering of this music for the lps. This is not a direct-to-disc collection, but the piano sound is impressive by any standards.