CHOPIN Piano Sonatas Nos. 2 and 3 Polonaises Alfred Cortot

Great Pianists • Cortot
CHOPIN
Piano Sonatas
Nos. 2 and 3
Polonaises
Alfred Cortot
1923 - 1947 Recordings
8.110065
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Fryderyk CHOPIN (1810-1849)
Piano Sonata No. 2 in B flat minor, Op. 35 17:01
‘Funeral March’
1 Grave; Allegro 4:51
2 Scherzo* 4:22
3 Marche funèbre 6:25
4 Finale (Presto) 1:23
Recorded 5th June, 1928 in Kingsway Hall
and *11th December, 1928 in Queen's Small Hall,
London
Matrices: CR 2053-1A, *Cc 15436-2,
CR 2055-1A and CR 2056-2A
First issued on HMV DB 1250 and 1251
Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor, Op. 58 23:22
5 Allegro maestoso 8:39
6 Scherzo (Allegro vivace) 2:32
7 Largo 7:06
8 Finale (Presto non tanto) 5:05
Recorded 6th July, 1933
in EMI Abbey Road Studio No. 3, London
Matrices: 0B 5226-3, 5227-2, 5228-1, 5229-2,
5230-1, 5231-2, 5232-2 and 5233-1
First issued on HMV DA 1333 through 1336
3 Chants Polonais, Op. 74
(transcribed by Liszt) 8:02
9 Spring (Wiosna) 2:34
0 The Ring (Pierscien) 2:05
! My Joys (Moja piesczotka )* 3:23
Recorded 10th March, 1939
in EMI Abbey Road Studio No. 3, London
Matrices: 0EA 7591-2 and 7592-1
and *2EA 7593-1
First issued on HMV DA 1682
and *unissued on 78 rpm
@ Grande Polonaise, Op. 22 4:49
Recorded 5th February, 1923 in Camden,
New Jersey
Matrix: C 27366-3
First issued on Victor 74824
# Polonaise No. 6 in A flat major, Op. 53 6:30
‘Heroic’
Recorded 4th-5th July, 1933
in EMI Abbey Road Studio No. 3, London
Matrices: 2B 5205-1 and 5206-3
First issued on HMV DB 2014
$ Polonaise No. 7 in A flat major, Op. 61 9:43
‘Polonaise-Fantasie’
Recorded 15th October, 1947
in EMI Abbey Road Studio No. 3, London
Matrices: 2EA 12435-1 and 12436-1
Unissued on 78 rpm
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Alfred Cortot (1877-1962)
CHOPIN: Sonatas • Polonaises
The son of a French father and Swiss mother, Alfred
Cortot was born in Nyon, Switzerland in 1877. During
his childhood the family moved to Paris and at the age
of nine young Alfred joined the Paris Conservatoire,
where he studied piano first with Emile Descombes
(1829-1912) and, from the age of fifteen, with Louis
Diémer (1843-1919). Cortot made his début in 1897
with Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor,
Op. 37, and gave piano duet recitals with Edouard
Risler (1873-1929), playing arrangements for four
hands of music by Wagner. His enthusiasm for the
German composer led to his appointment as choral
coach, then assistant conductor at Bayreuth, working
under Felix Mottl and Hans Richter. Cortot’s
experiences in Bayreuth left him eager to introduce
Wagner’s music to French audiences, and in 1902 he
founded the Société des Festivals Lyriques, through
which in May of the same year he conducted the Paris
première of Götterdämmerung. The following year
Cortot organized another society enabling him to give
performances of major works such as Brahms’s
Requiem, Liszt’s St Elisabeth, Beethoven’s Missa
Solemnis and Wagner’s Parsifal, and not long after he
became conductor of the Société Nationale, promoting
works by contemporary French composers.
Cortot was a multi-faceted musician, a conductor
and chamber music player as well as solo pianist. He
formed a famous piano trio with Jacques Thibaud and
Pablo Casals, but it was as a pianist for which he
became renowned. He was appointed by Gabriel Fauré
to a teaching post at the Paris Conservatoire, but was in
such demand as a performer that he was invariably
away on tour. In 1918 Cortot made his first tour of
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America, and during his second tour in 1920 he played
all five of Beethoven’s Piano Concertos in two
evenings and Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in
D minor, Op. 30, with the composer present. Also at
this time he founded the Ecole Normale de Musique for
which he appointed a hand-picked staff. Cortot himself
taught there until 1961; his most famous students
include Magda Tagliaferro, Clara Haskil and Yvonne
Lefébure.
Cortot was a great artist whose interpretations were
often on a spiritual level. He managed to convey a
depth of meaning through his playing and became
associated with the works of Schumann, Debussy and
particularly Chopin. However, when he played
Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with Leopold
Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1920 one
reviewer passed a comment repeatedly used in
descriptions of Cortot’s playing, ‘Alfred Cortot
explores the spiritual depths of music. In the most
genuine and unaffected way he is among the most
poetic of pianists.’
Cortot first recorded the Piano Sonata No. 2 in B
flat minor, Op. 35, by Chopin on 5th December 1927 at
a session where he also recorded the complete
Preludes, Op. 28, and two pieces by Albéniz. HMV
used their ‘C’ Studio in the Small Queen’s Hall in
London as a recording venue, but the recording of the
sonata was not issued. Six months later, on 5th June
1928, Cortot recorded the work again, but this time the
recording was made in ‘D’ Studio of the Small Queen’s
Hall transmitted (probably via a telephone line) from
the Kingsway Hall. Cortot was probably not happy with
the Scherzo as he recorded just that movement again
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(amongst other works) at a session in ‘C’ Studio of the
Small Queen’s Hall on 11th December 1928. Although
a Pleyel piano was used for both 1928 sessions there is a
noticeable difference in sound quality because most of
the sonata was issued from the poorer quality Kingsway
Hall recording. Only the Scherzo comes from the ‘C’
Studio session. Cortot infuses his performance with an
urgency and sweeping energy throughout; he recorded
the work again for HMV at their Abbey Road Studios
on 8th July 1933.
The Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor, Op. 58, was
first set down by Cortot in Paris on 20th and 21st May
1930 but this was not issued. He recorded it again for
HMV on 12th May 1931 in London and this was issued
on four ten-inch discs from a total of twenty two takes
recorded that day. Between 4th and 9th July 1933,
however, Cortot recorded a huge amount of Chopin’s
music for HMV including the Fantasie in F minor, Op.
49, the Etudes, Op. 10, Berceuse, Op. 57, Tarantelle,
Op. 43, Polonaise in A flat, Op. 53, Barcarolle, Op. 60,
the complete Preludes, Op. 28, and the Four
Impromptus. At this time he also recorded both the B
minor and B flat minor piano sonatas and the Four
Ballades. All these recordings were made in No. 3
Studio at HMV’s Abbey Road location where the best
possible sound of the day could be obtained. It is
probably for this reason that HMV issued both Chopin
Sonatas from the 1933 sessions even though they
already had recordings in their catalogue by Cortot of
these works from 1928 and 1931. The 1933 version of
the B minor Sonata (completed in only fourteen takes
on 6th July) has incredible energy, particularly in the
last movement.
Of Liszt’s six transcriptions of Chopin’s Polish
songs, the Chants Polonais, Op. 74, only two became
popular - My Joys and The Maiden’s Wish. These were
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in the repertoire of practically every pianist of the first
half of the twentieth century and have been recorded by
such great pianists as Moritz Rosenthal, Ignace
Paderewski, Leopold Godowsky and Josef Hofmann.
Cortot recorded four of the six songs on 10th March
1939 and two of these, the rarely heard Spring and The
Ring were issued. The other two songs recorded at that
session were My Joys and The Maiden’s Wish; these
were not issued, and My Joys appears here from a test
pressing. All were recorded on a Steinway piano and
Cortot’s wonderful tone quality can be savoured,
particularly in My Joys. At the same recording session
Cortot recorded Weber’s Piano Sonata No. 2 in A flat
which was issued, and Ravel’s complete Gaspard de la
Nuit which was not issued owing to damaged matrices
and he unfortunately never recorded the work again.
Cortot only recorded Chopin’s Andante Spianato
and Grande Polonaise, Op. 22, complete when he was
in Japan in 1952. He recorded just the Polonaise,
however, for Victor on 5th February 1923 in Camden,
New Jersey. This is the only acoustic recording on this
compact disc, but being made right at the end of the
acoustic era the sound is particularly good for its age.
Critics of Cortot’s technique can be silenced by this
stunning performance in which Cortot understands
completely Chopin’s use of the decorated melodic line.
At nearly five minutes, the side length of the 78 rpm
disc is pushed to its limits, and there is a sense of Cortot
rushing to the finishing post even though he has already
had to make cuts in the work.
For such a popular piece, it is surprising that Cortot
only made his first recording of the Polonaise in A flat,
Op. 53, at the marathon 1933 sessions. The only other
issued recording he made of this work comes from
Japan in 1952 by which time Cortot was past his prime.
The 1933 recording has all the majestic swagger and
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pomp Cortot could bring to such a work, aided by a well
recorded Steinway piano.
A recording by Cortot of the Polonaise-Fantasie,
Op. 61, was never issued during his lifetime. He had
recorded it in 1943 in Paris when he was attempting to
set down all of Chopin’s works for French HMV. This
was never issued, but he recorded the work again in
October 1947 in London during sessions where he was
recording works of Chopin that he had not previously
recorded such as the Trois Nouvelles Etudes and the two
Nocturnes, Op. 55. The recording of the Polonaise-
Fantasie is perhaps not the most successful of Cortot’s
recordings, certainly the opening is rather more brusque
than fantastic, but all of Cortot’s penetrating drive,
energy and vision are there, and it certainly deserves to
be heard.
© 2006 Jonathan Summers
Producer’s Note
The sources for the recordings featured here were British HMV shellac discs except for the acoustic Grande
Polonaise, which came from a U.S. Victor pressing, and the unissued “My Joys”, whose source was a vinyl test
pressing. One of the aims of this series of Cortot’s 78-era Chopin recordings is to present versions of these works
which have not generally been available on CD, so I have included the 1928 version of the Funeral March Sonata
(which EMI passed over in favor of his 1933 remake in their Cortot/Chopin boxed set) and the 1933 version of the
B minor Sonata, which makes its first-ever CD appearance here.
The B flat minor Sonata was rather dimly recorded and was issued on particularly noisy surfaces; its rarity,
however, compels its inclusion in this series. The same applies to the unissued Polonaise-Fantasie, which came
from worn shellac tests. Although Cortot recorded the Andante Spianato et Grande Polonaise complete in Japan
in 1952, its late date puts it beyond the purview of the current series.
Mark Obert-Thorn
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The Naxos historical label aims to make available the greatest recordings in the history of recorded music, in the best
and truest sound that contemporary technology can provide. To achieve this aim, Naxos has engaged a number of
respected restorers who have the dedication, skill and experience to produce restorations that have set new standards
in the field of historical recordings.
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CORTOT: Chopin: Sonatas • Polonaises
NAXOS Historical
ALL RIGHTS IN THIS SOUND RECORDING, ARTWORK, TEXTS AND
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� & � 2006 Naxos Rights International Ltd.
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8.111065
CHOPIN
Alfred Cortot (1877-1962)
78 rpm recordings • Vol. 4
1-4 Piano Sonata No. 2 in B flat minor, Op. 35 17:01
‘Funeral March’
Recorded 5th June and 11th December 1928, London
5-8 Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor, Op. 58 23:22
Recorded 6th July 1933, London
3 Chants Polonais, Op. 74 8:02
(transcribed by Liszt)
9 Spring 2:34
0 The Ring 2:05
! My Joys 3:23
Recorded 10th March 1939, London
@ Grande Polonaise, Op. 22 4:49
Recorded 5th February 1923, Camden, New Jersey
# Polonaise No. 6 in A flat major, Op. 53 6:30
‘Heroic’
Recorded 4th & 5th July 1933, London
$ Polonaise No. 7 in A flat major, Op. 61
‘Polonaise-Fantasie’ 9:43
Recorded 15th October 1947, London
Producer and Audio Restoration Engineer: Mark Obert-Thorn
Special thanks to Nathan Brown, the International Piano Archives at the
University of Maryland (IPAM), Donald Manildi and Charles Niss.
www.naxos.com
A complete track list can be found in the booklet
Cover Image: Alfred Cortot (Private Collection)
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Playing
Time
69:28
Posterity has judged Alfred
Cortot as one of the greatest
artists of the twentieth century.
This fourth disc in the Naxos five
volume series devoted to his
78rpm era recordings of Chopin
includes three rarities: My Joys
and the Polonaise-Fantasie, both
unreleased on 78rpm, and the
first-ever CD appearance of the
1933 version of the Piano Sonata
No. 2. Completed in only
fourteen takes on 6th July, this
version of the Sonata has
incredible energy, particularly in
the last movement. The stunning
performance of the Grande
Polonaise, Op. 22 demonstrates
Cortot’s total understanding of
Chopin’s use of the decorated
melodic line. The popular
Polonaise in A flat, Op. 53 is
played with majestic swagger
and pomp, aided by a well
recorded Steinway piano.
NAXOS Historical
CORTOT: Chopin: Sonatas • Polonaises
8.111065