Hyperion Records

Polonaises, mazurkas, waltzes, the krakowiak, the kujawiak: such are the dance types Chopin most frequently essayed. Bourrées, ecossaises, a tarantella, a bolero, are what he turned to for diversion. Conceived in the summer of 1841, the Tarantella in A flat major has the character of a brilliantly bravura, almost Lisztian, perpetuum mobile, ripe with harmonic pungency and chromatically frenetic unrest. Niecks could find little to admire; it was, he said, like ‘a transmutation of Rossini into Chopin, a Neapolitan scene painted with opaque colours, the south without its transparent sky, balmy air, and general brightness.’ Schumann believed otherwise: ‘This is in Chopin’s most daring manner; we see the madly whirling dancers before us, until our own senses seem to reel. We can scarcely term this lovely music, but we willingly forgive the master for the wildness of his imagination, the right side of which he may certainly be allowed to display sometimes.’

from notes by Ates Orga © 1992