Frederic Chopin's Mazurkas encompass traditional Polish dance and song forms together with the composer's startlingly original approach to piano writing, his contrapuntal ingenuity and his astonishing harmonic imagination. And these works lend themselves to a wide range of interpretive possibilities, which The Classical Network's Artist-in-Residence explores on this week's episode of the ASCAP Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Award winning program Between the Keys.
"As listeners probably know by now, I'm a Chopin Mazurka obsessive," Jed admits. "I'm fascinated by how these pieces can sound so utterly different from one pianist to the next, yet the interpretations still manage to convince. For example, you've got the volatile and epic Ignaz Friedman on one hand, and the more inward and lyrical Michel Block on the other. So I've decided to present nine pianists, each playing two Mazurkas. You'll certainly notice their diverse approaches and individuality."
The nine pianists are Michel Block, Helena Czerny-Stefanska, Alexander Uninsky, Ignace Jan Paderewski, Dinorah Varsi, Garrick Ohlsson, Guiomar Novaes, Alessandro Deljavan and Ignaz Friedman.
Tune in Tuesday night at 10, with a rebroadcast on Wednesday at noon, exclusively on The Classical Network and WWFM.org
