www.classicalarchives.com/artists/baglini.html

Here young artist Maurizio Baglini is playing all off the Chopin Etudes both on a modern Steinway and on two pianos that belong to Chopin's time.
I wish Chopin had owned a Steinway. On the other hand he takes the tempo faster on the period instruments which has a lighter action than today's concert pianos I assume.
Nevertheless the site claims these to be the first set of recordings of all the Chopin Etudes on period instruments and it is interesting to hear these etudes as how Chopin once heard them.
Rgds,
Hakki.

Very interesting! It really does sound a lot different when played on the older styled pianos like Chopin played on. I liked it and wish that there were recordings of all the other pieces by Chopin.

Emanuel Ax has two all Chopin CDs that were performed on an 1850 Erard. I really enjoy listening to these disks. Between them they contain all of Chopin's music for piano and orchestra and some solo works.

I wish there were more recordings of Chopin playing his music.

How unlucky we are! They have just made the recording on historic pianos avaliable only for download (for members only). Wish I had listened to all of them when I had first found the site.
One thing I had noticed was that the pianos of Chopin's time had considerably short sustain compared to Steinway. I wonder how Chopin achieved that "singing tone" on these instruments and what he could do if he had one of the modern pianos of today. Would he even be satisfied with the tone of an avarage student of our time playing on a Steinway?
Rgds,
Hakki.

Do you mean to say that you've found some[/b] recordings of Chopin playing his music?

Well, they aren't of very good quality...

Just kidding

Ryan

There is a pianist named Ed Battersby that has recorded scads of romantic music on period instruments, Chopin, Schumann, Mendelssohn. I think one of the remarkable things about those pianos is that the register breaks tend to be very noticable, not like our modern instruments with their seamless transitions from one register to the next.

Unfortunately I was born in the era of modern pianos. I grew up with the modern sound. To me there is no 'turning back'. I find period instruments quite unsatisfactory. I tried listening to a few recordings. Nothing clicked or worked for me. Not even maestro Ax's two Chopin Concerti on Chopin's Erard. Probably for the same reason I don't own any CD by Mevlyn Tan (sp?). I read about it that Mr. Tan owns both a modern Steinway and Bosendorfer. The rumor has it the Bosie was a gift from the manufacturer. Is this true? Oh well...

Andrew:

I'm very much in your camp. While I can appreciate the historical value of playing/recording performances on instruments of the era, most of those do little for me, emotionally. I much prefer, in the realm of piano music, a good performance on a modern grand.

Regards,

BruceD,

Harpsichord does not work for me either. As great as Landowska is I don't care that much for her artistry on harpsichord. She was a great artist, no question about that. It's just the sound and timbre of the harpsichord that 'pushed' me away from enjoying her playing. As to her famous statement "I play Bach HIS way..." I'm not sure that she ever succeeded.

I'm not really sure that there is anything wrong with being born into the age of the modern concert grand. That's the sound that musicians of the past DREAMED about. Beethoven constantly hungered after a piano that could handle a bigger sound. They made some giant steps in the early part of the century, but I think they always had a higher ideal in mind, one that finally was reallized with the modern pianos that we've been enjoying for the past century or so.

No. What I meant to say was I wish that I could here all of his peices played like that. YOU KNEW WHAT I MEANT! Okay fine, I wish that I could hear more MIDI files like that.

Jgoo:

Please read the posts more carefully. I was not responding to your comment, I was teasing Ryan about the slip he had made in his post on this thread. The quote even said "originally posted by Ryan." So, why are you shouting at me with your upper case "You knew what I meant.!

I also knew what Ryan meant, but the slip was so "cute" I couldn't help teasing him about it.

I'm sorry. This is a litte embarrasing. I should have read a bit more careful. Its just that what Ryan said was almost identical to what I said. Thats why I wrote that responce. I though it was making fun of me!

My "slip" was really just tongue-in-cheek on my part However, I really do wish there were recordings of Chopin playing his music on period pianos...

Ryan