COMPOSERS: Chopin
LABELS: Dux
WORKS: Complete Solo Piano Works
PERFORMER: Tatiana Shebanova (piano)
CATALOGUE NO: DUX 0640-9
Tatiana Shebanova, who also features in the Fryderyk Chopin Institute’s on-going Real Chopin series (see review special, p83), gets her own complete, modern instrument (as opposed to Real Chopin’s historic instruments) cycle on the Polish label Dux. Arranged in opus order, it presents a satisfying survey of Chopin’s development, and it spares the listener from (for example) a lack of variety in the usual hour-long sequence of waltzes.
It’s easy to locate a particular piece if you know its opus number, but otherwise possibly frustrating – and things are not helped by the scant documentation or the brief programme note repeated in each of the ten CDs. But the Russian-born, Polish-domiciled pianist is a cultured Chopin player, whose performances are never less than very satisfying. Individually, her interpretations may not challenge established favourites in the catalogue, but the set as a whole is a fine achievement that deserves a place in any piano library. John Allison