Historical interpretations of Frederic Chopin works
Frederic Chopin heritage survived in the National Library in Warsaw not only in the form of manuscripts of his works, but also in recordings of outstanding artists. This site provides information on biographies, careers as well as Chopin discographies of world famous pianists who played the music of the great Polish composer.
However, it is not easy to name performances "historic" as it requires musicological analysis of numerous recordings. On this site the main criterion is not the period, but the fact that a pianist was born and educated in the nineteenth century and began his career before the First World War. Therefore the site deals with all performances, even if - as in the case of Mieczyslaw Horszowski - they were recorded at the end of artist's life. Pianists belonging to this group reveal considerable stylistic differences: from the nineteenth-century playing of Theodor Leschetizky and Ignaz Friedman associated with more liberal approach to the text to "modernists" like Zofia Rabcewicz or Robert Casadesus whose accounts were faithful to the printed note.
This site will be developed and supplemented with information on other artists and their interpretations as well as new acquisitions of the National Library related to the subject matter.
