Chopin Piano Concertos

This 2010 Chopin program has the following music:

1. Nikolai Demidenko plays the Chopin Concerto No. 1

2. Demidenko plays as encore the Chopin Mazurka in A minor

3.  Evgeny Kissin follows with the Chopin Concerto No. 2

4. Kissen plays as encore the Chopin Etude in C minor

5. Kissen plays as second encore the Chopin Waltz in E minor

Antoni Wit conducts the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra at the Warsaw Philharmonic Hall. Directed for TV by Michael Beyer. Released 1011, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. For both performances, Grade: B+

This disc has excellent PQ. Even if it isn't of audiophile quality, the good sound on this recording wipes out my CD of the same material with Perahia and Mehta.   There are interesting shots of the Warsaw Philharmonic Hall and a surprisingly casual, young, and cosmopolitan-looking audience. This title bears the Paul Smaczny stamp---an event as well as a musical performance. Both soloists turn in A+ work, but their efforts are dragged down by weak video content.

Piano Concerto No. 1

Demidenko---self-effacing, bemused, and underdressed, quietly turns out what seems to me to be a perfect performance. Other reviewers have called him "timid" or "cautious." But I think he is performing the music as Chopin did. I have rarely quoted others in these mini-reviews, but here are words of pianist Byron Jaris that appeared years ago in the Wall Street Journal.

Chopin's physical strength was limited not only by his delicate physique, but by his battle with tuberculosis. As a result, many who heard him perform in public auditoriums complained that his tone was almost inaudible. Yet genius that he was, he found a way to handle and transcend his limitations. He devised a tonal palette scaled down to the softest sound possible, increasing to a mezzo forte (half-loud) that sounded like a fortissimo by way of contrast.

Like the man, Chopin's music was a mystery. Nothing like it had ever been heard before, nor has it been since. Liszt would introduce Chopin to friends with words that captured that otherworldly quality: "I want you to meet a man who comes form another planet."

These comments from Jaris are my guide in listening to Chopin. To me, the poetic power of the Demidenko performance here puts him on that "other planet" with Chopin. Even though there are 3 movements, Demidenko plays the first note as the beginning of one long singing line that ends on the last note of the last bar. And there is one climax in his concerto (at the end of the first movement about halfway through the whole piece). To me this is more satisfying than the succession of outbursts that marks the playing of this by other pianists.

So what's the problem with video content? Well, there's none so long as Demidenko is playing. The problem is with the presentation of the orchestra. This is not a case of what we call "DVDitis", where the HDVD is tainted by old habits. No, the video of the orchestra here is pure and unadulterated DVD, except that it has 1080 line resolution.

See our standards for HDVD video of a symphonic orchestra  recording. The essence of an HDVD is that it shows the entire orchestra as the default and moves in for closeup shots where warranted. In this Demidenko video there is exactly one whole orchestra shot (at 35:32) and 4 part-orchestra shots, all of which last only a few seconds in total. There are about 60 shots of the conductor, of which roughly 35 are shot over the backs of the players. There are many inane instrument-only shots. But mostly there's the ping-pong game played by moving your eyes from the conductor to an isolated member of the band and then back to the conductor, over and over again. For example, there are 37 cuts in the first 5:23 minutes of the concerto before the soloist enters.

So how to we grade this?  We start with an A+ performance. But because the SQ is not up to audiophile standards, we would move the grade to "A."  This is a website about HDVDs of fine arts shows. So if somebody tries to sneak in a DVD as an HDVD, we knock it from "A" to "C." But most of this video shows the soloist, where the DVD issues don't apply. This allows us to move the grade back to "B+." It's a shame to see Demidenko's fine performance blighted this way.

Piano Concerto No. 2

Kissin---resplendent and neurotic---goes for the kill and succeeds with the girls for sure. He and Demidenko make a good pairing with their contrasting styles. Kissen's approach here is flash and slash, but done with great accuracy and and in good taste. However, he played his Etude encore so fast, it seemed more a stunt than a performance.

The video of the orchestra for the Kissin performance is similar to the Demidenko segment described above. If there was a single whole-orchestra shot in the Kissen performance, I must have looked at my watch and missed it. Consequently the grade analysis would also lead to a "B+" for Kissen, and again it's a shame.