Celestial Harmonies 14260-2, double CD 0 1371 14260 2 1
Total playing time Disc 1 - 58’17”; Disc 2 - 65’66”
2006 Celestial Harmonies, http://www.harmonies.com
Producer/Engineer Ulrich Kraus, Munich
http://musikansich.de/ausgaben/1006/reviews/a_chopin.html
English Translation:
Musik an sich...October 2006, by Sven Kerkhoff
PHANTASTIC
If only all pauses could be so productive! The, by now, 63 year old pianist Roger Woodward has returned to the music scene after a 5 year pause in his creativity and has come up with the complete recording of Chopin’s Nocturnes which is equal to none. Woodward is primarily known through his interpretations of contemporary music: Takemitsu, Feldman, Pärt, Xenakis and others. The fruits of this intensive occupation with different realms and hues of sound are also influencing his interpretation of the Nocturnes.
Woodward approaches them with great gentleness so that the playing times of the individual pieces lie clearly above that of other interpreters. Virtuosic tinkering with the keyboard is foreign to him. His concentrated interpretation is well thought out, now and then pensive and contains embellishments of astonishing yet never conceited liberties.
The pianist demonstrates how strongly and in what breathtakingly modern way Chopin has worked with and at sound colours. The recording proves, moreover, that the breadth of the colour palette does not depend on the choice of an (historically correct) instrument. Although everything sounds lighter on a Steinway than, for example, on the fortepiano (compare the recording with Baart van Oort) this does not essentially influence the overall impression.
With Woodward this lighter tonality does not lead at all to a lighter result. On the contrary, his playing is melancholic in a startling way, fathoms precipices to the utmost depth and blocks any possible escape via dazzling hollow phrases. There is a question mark behind all. The ethereal sound constructions arise like phantastic dreamscapes - and dissolve like them. But those landscapes are of such ravishing beauty and the farewell from these never tangible constructions so painful that one has to continually catch one’s breath.. Whoever could not, until now, marvel at or cry over Chopin will learn it here.
Producer and sound recorder Ulrich Kraus has sympathetically captured this exceptional interpretative achievement and been alert to every mood of the instrument.
Unconditional recommendation! 20
http://www.rogerwoodward.com/index.php/discography/P10/