# Chopin's Piano Sonatas



## science

What are your favorite recordings of Chopin's piano sonatas? 

Which recordings do you think most people would regard as "the best?" 

Which recordings do you think are the most popular? Or, which recordings do you think most people here will identify as their favorites? 

And of course, which would you recommend most strongly to someone without a recording of them? 

I am of course most interested in the 2nd and 3rd sonatas, but I wouldn't mind hearing a great recording of the 1st as well!


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## joen_cph

I´ve got a good bunch (5x no.1, 20x no.2, 9x no.3), but somehow I don´t really recognize any as real favourites in these works. Will re-listen to some, if I get the time ...

Of course, among the widely available recordings are:

Ashkenazy 1-3, Andsnes 1-3, Argerich 2+3, Cortot 2+3, Rubinstein 2+3, Horowitz 2, Gilels 2, Rachmaninov 2, Pogorelich 2, Lipatti 3 (etc. etc.)


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## Blake

Ashkenazy's the man. Excellent balance of pinpoint technicality and sweet romance. He also came in 2nd in the International Chopin Piano Competition back in '55. So, he's really known his Chopin for quite some time.


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## PetrB

Lipatti's Chopin is one sort of nonpareil, certainly not a bad choice.


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## ShropshireMoose

As ever with works available in so many diverse recordings as the Chopin 2nd and 3rd piano sonatas, it's difficult to arrive at just one recommendable performance, and fortunately, not being a BBC "building a library" reviewer, I don't have to! If we're talking in terms of stereo recordings, then the performances I most often turn to are those by Vlado Perlemuter on Nimbus. He has a most wonderful tone, and a nobility of conception that I find works very well, and as his favourite pianist was Rachmaninoff, and his main teacher was Cortot, then his credentials are impeccable. 
Heading back into an earlier era, I wouldn't ever want to be without Rachmaninoff's performance of the the 2nd sonata, Cortot's of the 2nd and 3rd sonatas (the recordings from 1933 are the best, there are earlier and later alternatives, but these are the benchmark ones), and Lipatti's of the 3rd. There is however one recording of the 3rd sonata that I find one of the most compelling piano recordings of all time, by anybody of anything, and that is Percy Grainger's. It was the first electrical recording made of this sonata, in 1925 and is one of those recordings that when you hear it, you feel this is it, it simply cannot be played any other way. Grainger plays in a completely unbridled manner, untroubled by tradition or niceties, and from the moment it starts to the moment it finishes, you find yourself taken into another world and one which you very much want never to leave. I always want to shout "bravo" at the end of it, and if I were given to wearing a hat indoors, I would most certainly throw it in the air when it finishes! If you do nothing else, do try and hear Grainger in the B Minor sonata (it's best remastering is in the APR set of Grainger's complete solo piano recordings, a set available at bargain price, and full of wonderful things) he really is a wonder.
Getting back to the stereo era, Horowitz's 1962 CBS recording of the 2nd sonata is very good, and for the first I find Andsnes to be a reliable guide. I also have a tape of a live performance given in 1983 by Jorge Bolet that the BBC broadcast, it is superb and should certainly be issued commercially (always assuming that the BBC still have a copy- and you've no guarentee of that!). Shura Cherkassky's Decca disc of live performances of the 2nd and 3rd sonatas also comes high up on my list of favourites. Cherkassky was one of the few pianists who programmed the 1st sonata, and I hope and pray that one day a recording of him performing it will turn up. So there's a few to be going on with off the top of my head, hope this helps.


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## hpowders

I like Pollini a lot myself.


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## Vaneyes

Pogo, ABM, Demidenko.:tiphat:


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## Bruce

I'd have to go with Rubinstein.


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## Bored

Obviously no one here's bought the Chopin complete collection. Those are magnificently played.


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## Aramis

Vesuvius said:


> Ashkenazy's the man


A man for sure, not Chopin's man though.

Apart from all those legendary piano geezers everybody is mentioning, I'd recommend Howard Shelley performance on historical pianos. For the sake of historical pianos primarly, though it doesn't mean that Shelley's playing has no merit of it's own.


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## joen_cph

I have also got the DG complete collection (as well as Magaloffs complete one of the solo piano music). It has been available very cheaply recently.


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## JACE

Murray Perahia's recording of the Second & Third Sonata is the only version that I'm familiar with. I like it very much.


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## realdealblues

Rubinstein, Francois & Perahia for Sonata's 2 & 3 and Ohlsson in the 1st.


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## clara s

A. my favourite

no 3 William Kapell 

no 2 William Kapell and Ivo Pogorelich

no 1 Cyprien Katsaris and Vladimir Ashkenazy


B. which recordings people think are best

maybe for no2 Argerich

maybe for no1 Ashkenazy

maybe for no3 Lipatti


C. which one, people think most popular

Argerich, Rachmaninoff, Lipatti recordings


Finally, which recording I would recommend?

of course all of William Kapell, a fascinating pianist

that suits perfectly my style of hearing

have a listen to him if you find the time


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## hpowders

Yes! William Kapell. Died so young. A terrific Prokofiev 3rd piano concerto too!!


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