This double album has a special significance because it lifts you into another era. A time when Mitsuko Uchida, aged 22, more than made her mark as a Chopin pianist. A competitor in the 1970, 8th International Chopin Competition in Warsaw, her performances, taken live, are of such quality that while they hardly make you regret her change of musical focus, to Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, with Chopin only an occasional offering, they sadden through their brilliance and empathy that she has not given us more. Only a single commercial disc(the Sonatas 2 and 3) dating from 1988; the rest silence, until now.
Her performance of the E minor Concerto is of such surpassing dexterity and nuance that it makes you wonder when you last heard a reading of such calibre. Her assurance and conviction are unfailing, and in the central Romance she is poetry itself, as delicate and inward as even the most ardent Chopin lover could wish. In the finale the notes cascade from her fingers with a diamond-like clarity yet, once again, her astonishing reflexes are always subservient to a musical end.
CD 1 opens with the B major Nocturne, opus 62 No 1, and whether in the audacious opening harmonic progression or in the nightingales of Nohant, Uchida makes you gloriously aware of ecstasy, of kaleidoscopic changes of mood and direction. Her selection of three Etudes, opus 10 No 8, opus 25 No 5 and opus 10 No 2 are of a coruscating agility, of an ease in the face of Chopin's virtuoso demands that at a later stage in her competition career made Radu Lupu cy out in wonder, 'I wish I could play Chopin Etudes like that!'
Uchida is a power house in the F sharp minor Polonaise, uncompromising in a propulsive and insistent episode that must have set Chopin's contemporaries teeth on edge. Her way with the Fourth Scherzo is enthralling in its bravura, and, again, in the central oasis of calm, its colour and gentle syncopation. She is masterly in the Barcarolle, and in the B flat minor Sonata she repeats, unusually, the opening 'Grave' before taking the following 'Doppio movimento' by storm, the wonder being that while the playing pulses to the very edge, is what the French call 'tres nerveux,' she stays so decisively in control. She captures the demonic charge of the Scherzo(reminding you of the irony of the title which translates as 'playful) before giving you a Funeral March of rare dignity, the central benediction leaving you mesmerized by such translucency and calm. As for the finale, Uchida like all great pianists(and at such an early stage she already proclaims herself a great pianist) comes up with her own solution to its macabre enigma, a devilish skittering, enough to chill the blood of even the most sanguine listener.
In his accompanying note the late Jan Weber says more in two pages than Jan Popis says in thirteen. Here he traces the change the competition effected in the general perception of Chopin; from a salon figure to a composer of heroic strength and limitless range. Here again, was a chance to sweep aside what was once cherished, affected rubato, exaggerated tempi and a general frivolity alien to Chopin's true genius. Speaking of a 'boundless wealth of emotional expression,' of 'classical precision and succinctness' and of an awareness of 'order and rigour'ershxz he might well be referring to Mitsuko Uchida's performances themselves.
Bryce Morrison