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Track(s) taken from CDS44351/66

Waltz in D flat major 'Minute', Op 64 No 1

composer
published in 1847; Waltz No 6

Garrick Ohlsson (piano)
Recording details: November 1995
Performing Arts Center, Purchase College, State University of New York, USA
Produced by Adam Abeshouse
Engineered by Adam Abeshouse
Release date: November 2008
Total duration: 1 minutes 54 seconds

Cover artwork: Frédéric Chopin in concert at the Hotel Lambert, Paris (1840). Antar Teofil Kwiatowski (1809-1891)
Bibliothèque Polonaise, Paris / Archives Charmet / Bridgeman Images
 

Other recordings available for download

Stephen Hough (piano)

Reviews

‘Hyperion's big deal … Ohlsson is a powerful and committed player, and is afforded very good sound by the engineers … this is almost certainly how these pieces were played in Chopin's time’ (The Mail on Sunday)

‘This is an oustanding achievement, which any genuine Chopin lover and student of Romantic music should own … a landmark in the recording of Chopin's music … Garrick Ohlsson and Hyperion deserve the greatest success in bringing this important undertaking to such a consistently impressive conclusion’ (International Record Review)

‘An attractively priced box set … Ohlsson is in a class of his own’ (Pianist)

‘The collaborative works receive particularly rewarding performances … Ohlsson arguably offers more consistent artistry than Biret, Ashkenazy, Magaloff, and Harasiewicz’ (Classics Today)

‘Garrick Ohlsson’s complete survey of everything Chopin wrote for piano (including chamber music, songs, and for piano and orchestra) will delight the completist and the Chopin connoisseur. Ohlsson (who won the Chopin International Piano Competition in 1970) gives us accounts of this wondrous repertoire in weighty and commanding style, aristocratic and impulsive (but not lacking light and shade or contemplative contrasts) and, at times, very sensitive and searching. These vivid recordings were made in the second half of the 1990s and have previously appeared on the Arabesque label. They now sit very well in Hyperion’s catalogue’ (Classical Source)
The nickname is not Chopin’s—he loathed descriptive titles—but the moniker nonetheless conveys something important: the waltz unfolds as if it lasted only a minute. What the clock measures does not matter; we sense the birth and death of a musical world in a seeming instant. In this metaphorical minute, time bends: bars and beats stretch (Chopin’s famous rubato), the outer sections bustle by, the middle section sings. Chopin condenses the whole idea of the dance into a few brief moments.

from notes by Jeffrey Kallberg © 2011

Ce surnom n’est pas de Chopin—il détestait les titres descriptifs—mais il véhicule une idée importante: la valse s’éploie comme si elle ne durait qu’une minute. Peu importe ce que mesure l’horloge: en ce qui nous semble un instant, nous ressentons la naissance et la mort d’un monde musical. En cette minute métaphorique, le temps se tord: mesures et temps s’étirent (le fameux rubato chopinien), les sections extrêmes s’agitent, la section centrale chante. Toute l’idée de la danse, Chopin la condense en quelques brefs moments.

extrait des notes rédigées par Jeffrey Kallberg © 2011
Français: Hypérion

Der Spitzname stammt nicht von Chopin—er hasste beschreibende Titel—doch wird dadurch gleichwohl auf etwas Wichtiges hingewiesen: der Walzer entfaltet sich, als ob er eine Dauer von nur einer Minute hätte. Was die Uhr sagt, ist hier uninteressant; der Hörer spürt das Entstehen und Sterben einer musikalischen Welt in anscheinend einem Augenblick. In dieser metaphorischen Minute ist die Zeit gekrümmt: Takte und Schläge dehnen sich aus (Chopins berühmtes Rubato), die äußeren Teile eilen heran und der Mittelteil singt. Chopin komprimiert das gesamte Konzept eines Tanzes auf einige kurze Momente.

aus dem Begleittext von Jeffrey Kallberg © 2011
Deutsch: Viola Scheffel

Other albums featuring this work

Chopin: The Complete Waltzes
CDA67849
Chopin: The Complete Waltzes
CDH55381
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