Tiberghien plays CHOPIN = 13 Mazurkas; Scherzo No. 1 in B Minor, Op. 20; Nocturne in C Minor, Op 48, No. 1; Polonaise-Fantasie in A-flat Major, Op. 61 – Cedric Tiberghien, piano – Harmonia mundi HMC 902073, 70:18 ****:
Recorded January 2010, the sixteen compositions of Chopin played by Cedric Tiberghien form a curious ensemble, the lion’s share given over to the ethnic dance form that permeates the Chopin style, the mazurka. The progression of mazurkas proceeds chronologically, so far as opus numbers are concerned. These miniatures–even as early as Opp. 68, 6, and 7–compress the Polish national style into dynamic spaces that seethe with rhythmic and melodic potential. When the three larger pieces erupt, like the B Minor Scherzo, they seem anomalous, surging and expansive commentaries on emotions and gestures that had been implied or flirted with before. Tiberghien moves through the B Minor Scherzo eloquently and efficiently, the lovely noel of its trio section limpid and tender at once. The clamorous and impassioned outer sections prove that the Christmas carol “Sleep infant Jesus” provides the eye of an emotional hurricane. With the mazurkas of Op. 17 and Op. 24, Chopin has already refined his harmonic world, the modal colors tripping in accents that often defy clear delineation between two and three beats. The famous tone-poem A Minor, Op. 17, No. 4 introduces a note of tragedy whose protean line shifts at each repetition, the writing often invoking three-hand effects. Tiberghien’s own line proves flexible, freely applying rubato and pedal to color the lyrico-martial impulses. A true Chopin interpreter, Tiberghien knows how to make his silences sing. The C Major Op. 24, No. 2 dazzles by its sheer transparency of figure, the affects resolute then playful, the metrics askew and the roulades florid with coquetry. The grand B-flat Minor, Op. 24, No. 4 adds an element of mystery and dark passing dissonance, the urge to become a waltz thwarted by its own metric obsessions.
In the midst of life, Tiberghien proffers an incandescent Nocturne in C Minor, studied, devout, savoring its own dark hues and descents into the abyss. The B Major Mazurka from Op. 56 that ensues applies a militant spirit in the renewal of our faith. Tiberghien renders the triptych of Op. 59 as a group, wherein Chopin’s idiosyncratic harmony has so evolved to assure its own world, a temenos or sacred space of ravishing beauty and metric nuances in national colors. The A-flat Major sparkles in shimmering piano sonority, Tiberghien’s instrument captured by engineer Tobias Lehmann. The final dance of the set, the F-sharp Minor, seems a perfect example of the salon experience that Chopin virtually invented. The largest work, the ubiquitous Polonaise-Fantasie, Op. 61 of 1846, poses no problems–technical or structural–for Tiberghien, who bestows a grand style on the meandering curves and harmonic intricacies–Chopin relishes the falling fourth–of its musings, the B Major middle section equally poignant.
The last two mazurkas serve as a poetic postscript, the C-sharp Minor, Op. 63, No. 3 lilting and trilling in slightly askew accents, wistful and gently nostalgic. The F Minor seems to take us into a lonely arbor, the poet introspective with occasionally mortal thoughts. Tiberghien maintains a suavely elastic Andantino, whose meter passes coyly into waltz time. Ah, the ambiguities of living!
–Gary Lemco
