# Anyone Like Chopin?



## The Angel of Music (Jul 24, 2004)

Anyone like Chopin? I love how fast the paino playing is...it's so amazing! I can never seem to get my fingers going that fast! LOL!!! :lol:


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## Maestro Murphy (Jul 15, 2004)

Yes, I absolutely love Chopin. His works really do demand superior technique. Although not ALL Chopin pieces are fast, a lot are. Some of my favorite Chopin works include Fantasie Impromptu, Heroic Polonaise, and The Butterfly Study. What an amazing composer.


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## The Angel of Music (Jul 24, 2004)

Hmmm...I only have 1 cd of chopin's works...I should listen too those one's you mentioned.


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## Daniel (Jul 11, 2004)

Chopin is impressive. His mood pieces has this melancholic sweet, his dance music has this (polish) energy and the concerts have a great flow. He was a really heartful composer and interpret.


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## 009 (Jul 16, 2004)

> *The Butterfly Study*


Hmmm... One of my personal fav.
I like his harp etude also, and not forgetting his Berceuse. I think his berceuse is the best( having listened to soooo many)...His is the only one that I felt really resembles a lullaby.  
But I disliked his revolutionary etude. :angry: I think it's the most horrible thing he'd ever composed. Well, maybe it's been over-performed, and so many horrible versions of it at the same time. :angry: 
By the way, speaking about polish energy and his mazurka...
Mazurka is a national polish dance. It orginated from the word, Mazovia, which is a small town in Poland.


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## The Angel of Music (Jul 24, 2004)

> _Originally posted by DW_@Jul 28 2004, 03:51 PM
> *Hmmm... One of my personal fav.
> 
> But I disliked his revolutionary etude. :angry: I think it's the most horrible thing he'd ever composed. Well, maybe it's been over-performed, and so many horrible versions of it at the same time. :angry:
> ...


  Really? Perhaps you are right...LOL. :lol: Just like the song "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" is overplayed it makes me song ANGRY!!! I hate the Wizard of Oz!!! ARGHGHGHGHGGHH!!! It's always overplayed! May it burn!!!! :angry: LOL. It also depends on what version you listen to of Etude Revolutionary probably, I agree.


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## becky (Jul 19, 2004)

I'm familiar with Chopin, but I really had to search my CD's to find any! After listening to the teeny-weeny bit I have... it's not my type of music! Maybe I just don't have the good stuff


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## baroque flute (Jul 21, 2004)

I like a few Chopin pieces, like the early Nocturne in G minor. But it's not really my kind of music either. I think I like it best when Drew Tretick plays Chopin's piano pieces on the violin! :lol:


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## 009 (Jul 16, 2004)

> *It also depends on what version you listen to of Etude Revolutionary probably, I agree.*


I think Ashkenazy is the best choice for Chopin. I liked his interpretations. 
Do any of u know this pianist Slyvia Capova?
She has an amazing recording of Chopin's Fantasie Impromptu.Very unlike other 'mediocre' recordings. U should listen to her bass notes and 'counter-melody'. So transient, sonorous and so clear!  
But it's sad, no on seems to know her. :angry:


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## Rafael (Jul 21, 2004)

I think Chopin is one of the very great composers. His Nocturnes is the corps of music that most I love. The variety and richness of so many inspired melodies seems to me a miracle. Etudes, Preludes and Waltzes are deservedly eternal while piano music exist. Only I can't appreciate equally his Polonaises and Mazurkas, due perhaps to his folk character, but that's a limitation of mine.


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## 009 (Jul 16, 2004)

> *Mazurkas*


I used to hate Mazurkas. It didn't make much sense to a teen like me back then. Only then when I know that they were dances with an implied 2nd beat, then I start to understand and appreciate them more.
But it's definately still not my fav when it comes to Chopin's 'set' collection. I think I'll prefer his Ballades, esp. the one in F minor. I love it!


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## Harvey (Jul 26, 2004)

Of course someone likes Chopin! He's my fav. composer!


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## The Angel of Music (Jul 24, 2004)

I just watched "The Pianast" which had a lot of pieces by Chopin. It was a real good movie...but I felt it had no real plot too it...but it was still good


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## Anton (Oct 17, 2004)

Indeed i do like chopin for his easygoing style.


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## LiLi (Aug 19, 2005)

I LOVE CHOPIN!  i dont think he gets enough credit. but i dont know any other composer that sounds exactly like him. you think you know the chord progression and where its going, and then he throws in some beautiful dissonance. and then resolution again. AH i love it.
And the revolutionary etude... ive heard it sound gorgeous and ive heard it sound just plain horrible. i agree that it really depends on who is playing it. ive tried. it can get ugly and bangy if its not treated well.


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## Daniel (Jul 11, 2004)

So who is your favourite Chopin interpret, Lili?


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## LiLi (Aug 19, 2005)

i really don't know! i should pay more attention to the performer's names on the front of all the cd's i get from the library  . lol i usually just look at the back to see the track listing. do you recommend anyone in particular?


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## die meistersinger (Mar 2, 2006)

*Ashkenazy*

 Ashkenazy's iterpretations will surely make you take notice,as I own a few of his albums on decca(LONDON)(polonaises,chopin favorites,).A good Chopin favorites is a good place to start.Ashkenazy is a great Chopin player in most respects, but in my ear Vladimir Horwitz has always been the chopin master.You may want to try his Chopin favorites on cbs masterworks.The recording is crisp and clear,and of course horowitz puts it all into perspective.He will send gooosebumps down your spine.(


DW said:


> I think Ashkenazy is the best choice for Chopin. I liked his interpretations.
> Do any of u know this pianist Slyvia Capova?
> She has an amazing recording of Chopin's Fantasie Impromptu.Very unlike other 'mediocre' recordings. U should listen to her bass notes and 'counter-melody'. So transient, sonorous and so clear!
> But it's sad, no on seems to know her. :angry:


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## Frederik Magle (Feb 17, 2006)

I'm just in this moment listening to the Berceuse in an old recording (from 1947) by Lev Oborin (Ashkenazy's teacher). It's a quite interesting CD called "The Golden Twelve" (Vol.1) featuring the first four winners of the International Chopin Piano Competition. Oborin won in 1927. There's also Alexsandre Ununsky, who won in 1932, Yakov Zak (1937) and Bella Davidovich (1949). It's interesting to listen to these old intrepretations, so I can definately recommend this CD if it can be found anywhere but Poland.


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## Fantasie (Mar 25, 2006)

chopin and liszt are the best


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## glezzery (Apr 3, 2006)

Ohh, Ahh Its so fast, if faster , better! Chopin so fast! Me like!
SERIOUSLY, Chopin is a well spring that propels the piano into the twentieth century. If you listen closely, you can hear those wide lean chord voicings that turn up in Stravinsky and then Copland. I have always considered Chopin the Bach of Piano in that he point the way to the possibilities and teaches, and the first modernist. I cannot listen too long, because like Schumann, his insanity bleeds over into his music and takes over. As for not getting enough credit, HOW DO YOU FIGURE THAT? He is the most played and studied PIANIST of all time!


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## glezzery (Apr 3, 2006)

As for Chopin players, Rubenstein, Martha Argerich, Richter, Pollini, and Ashkenazy Covers it!


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## soul_syringe (Apr 18, 2006)

...couldn't agree with you more... music was great though...


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## tahnak (Jan 19, 2009)

*Chopin*

Frederic Chopin was the greatest pianist composer along with Piotr Tchaikovsky, Serge Rachmaninov, Ludwig Van Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Liszt , Edvard Grieg, Aleksandr Scriabin and Claude Achille Debussy.


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## marval (Oct 29, 2007)

I love Chopin, I really enjoy listening to his piano music. I have an LP which I bought many years ago, it is all Chopin piano music with Ashkenazy. I can never hear it enough.


Margaret


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## mueske (Jan 14, 2009)

I like listening to some of his pieces, the frantic etudes are astounding to look at and listen to. But there is something missing in Chopin as a figure, I don't feel his music, like I do with other composers.


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## Air (Jul 19, 2008)

mueske said:


> I like listening to some of his pieces, the frantic etudes are astounding to look at and listen to. But there is something missing in Chopin as a figure, I don't feel his music, like I do with other composers.


Are you serious?

I suggest to take some time to listen to the following:

Ballade No. 1
Sonata No. 2
Scherzo No. 2
Etude Op. 10 No. 3
Piano Concerto No. 2 in f
Etude Op. 25 No. 11
Ballade No. 4
Nocturne in c minor, d flat major, c sharp minor


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## mueske (Jan 14, 2009)

airad2 said:


> Are you serious?
> 
> I suggest to take some time to listen to the following:
> 
> ...


I'm already familiar with those pieces, except the 1st ballad. I'm sorry, it just doesn't get to me, I don't feel it. However, this doesn't mean I do not appreciate Chopin as a composer, I can understand that he is considered a great artist, his music just isn't for me.

The same for Liszt (though I'm less familiar with him), his works also don't do anything for me.


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## Air (Jul 19, 2008)

IMO, MOST of Liszt works are flamboyant, flashy, concert-type and over-the-top. *This is not saying all of them. * The difference with Chopin, I feel, is that he is more personal (having less strength as a pianist, and concentrating more on expression than virtuosi), and much easier to "feel" when you play.

I could (notice "could" not "do") spend a day locked up in a room playing Chopin's Nocturnes, Ballades... but Liszt Hungarian Rhapsodies maybe I'd get to the 2nd and then be too exhausted. 

Oh, listen to the first Ballade.

I have no idea what i'm talking about because I am really not that *passionate* about Chopin.


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## thePianoMan (Feb 11, 2009)

I like Chopin, he's not my favorite, but I like some of his works. Right now I'm learning Revolutionary Etude, which I have to say is probably the most fun piece I've played. I have nearly all of it memorized, now I just need to get it up to speed.


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