Fourteen years ago Yulianna Avdeeva became the first woman since Martha Argerich 45 years earlier to take first prize in the prestigious International Chopin Competition, which is held every five years in Warsaw. Since that success however Avdeeva has left a rather mixed impression, both in her infrequent recitals in the UK and on disc, though those recordings have included a fascinating coupling of the two Chopin concertos on which she plays an Erard instrument of Chopin’s time.
The piano that Avdeeva uses for this collection of Chopin’s late works, from the B minor Sonata Op 58 to the two nocturnes of Op 62, is an historic instrument too. It’s the Steinway CD-18 that was Vladimir Horowitz’s personal piano, now in the collection of Steinways at the Tippet Rise Art Center in Montana, where the recording was made. As Avdeeva’s fleet, lean treatment of the first movement of the sonata immediately shows, it’s a piano with a light action, and a slightly shallow, metallic edge to its tone, which brings great clarity to her playing,
She is not an especially affectionate Chopin interpreter, and even in the Mazurkas Op 59 and the op 62 Nocturnes, there’s a slightly steely objectivity about her playing; perhaps it’s significant that her selection does not include the final sets of mazurkas and waltzes. But in both the sonata and the magnificent Polonaise-Fantaisie Op 61 there’s a real sense of authority and purpose; Avdeeva may sometimes keep listeners a bit too much at arms’ length, but there’s never doubting her sincerity.
• This article was amended on 4 October 2024. There are two, not three nocturnes in Op 62, and Op 59 is a set of mazurkas, not nocturnes.
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