Piano Concerto No. 1; Fantasia on Polish Airs; Krakowiak Naxos 8.572335
- Composer: Fryderyk Chopin
- Conductor: Antoni Wit
- Orchestra: Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra
- Artist: Eldar Nebolsin
Chopin’s youthful Piano Concerto No. 1 is dominated by the brilliant piano part that the teenage performer-composer wrote to showcase his extraordinary virtuosity. Its ravishing Romanza (‘reviving in one’s soul beautiful memories’, as the composer described it) is framed by an opening movement rich in dramatic lyricism and a vivacious Rondo. The Fantasia on Polish Airs, Op. 13 and Krakowiak are similarly vehicles for Romantic reverie and bravura which pay tribute to the music of Chopin’s homeland. Eldar Nebolsin’s recording of Liszt’s piano concertos was ranked ‘among the finest’ by Gramophone.
Piano Concerto No. 1; Fantasia on Polish Airs; Krakowiak Review
Chopin's two piano concertos are almost always paired with each other on recordings, but this Naxos release, with Uzbek-born pianist Eldar Nebolsin and the Warsaw Philharmonic under Antoni Wit, offers a more inventive and even more illuminating program of early Chopin pieces. The Fantasia on Polish Airs, Op. 13, actually predated the Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11, and it's quite rarely performed. In this context it's a gem, showing something of the milieu from which Chopin's individual style emerged while he was still in Poland. It is suffused with national melodic flavors and rhythms, and one of the themes is not by Chopin at all but by Warsaw Opera conductor Karol Kurpinski. The work lacks the characteristic chromaticism of Chopin's later music, but unmistakably shows his bent toward profound pianistic elaboration of essentially light genres. Here and in the Piano Concerto No. 1 pianist Nebolsin achieves distinctive performances, with a lyrical, slightly languid tone that fits both pieces beautifully. He turns on the power (which he displayed in abundance on an earlier Liszt release) in the second subject of the concerto's first movement, in the final “Kujawiak” movement of the Fantasia on Polish Airs, and on the concluding Krakowiak, Grand Rondeau de Concert, Op. 14, a work that captures as well as any other the moment at which Chopin broke through to international stardom. Definitely worth adding to a well-stocked Chopin shelf. The recording is billed as the first “to use the new Polish National Chopin Edition,” although the booklet notes (in English only) don't discuss which pieces that applies to and what the main import might be. James Manheim – All Music Guide