Alfred Cortot Encores

There are wrong notes, some of the recordings are of poor quality, others remarkably good for the 1920s: what is amazing is the unfailing verve, poetry, warmth and spontaneity. Some of the playing here is hardly credible, the technique and insight together are overpowering.

Michael Tanner

Our rating

5

Michael Tanner

Published: January 20, 2012 at 4:21 pm

COMPOSERS: Albeniz,Brahms,Chopin,Handel,Liszt,Schubert,Weber
LABELS: Naxos
WORKS: Encores by Schubert, Chopin, Brahms, Liszt, Weber, Handel, Albéniz
PERFORMER: Alfred Cortot (piano)
CATALOGUE NO: 8.111261

There are wrong notes, some of the recordings are of poor quality, others remarkably good for the 1920s: what is amazing is the unfailing verve, poetry, warmth and spontaneity. Some of the playing here is hardly credible, the technique and insight together are overpowering.

Michael Tanner

Michael Tanner

Journalist and Critic, BBC Music Magazine

Michael Tanner is a critic for BBC Music Magazine and the opera critic of The Spectator. He is now a fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, having lectured in the Philosophy faculty at the University of Cambridge for 36 years. In 2010, he released The Faber Pocket Guide to Wagner.
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