Ekaterina Mechetina and the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Yuri Simonov perform two piano concertos by Frédéric Chopin. The studio recording was made in 2021.
Ekaterina Mechetina is one of the brightest stars of contemporary Russian piano. She is an alumna of the Central Music School, the Moscow Conservatory and its graduate school. With more than thirty years of performing experience behind her, she has won awards of many prestigious competitions, including the 1st International Chopin Competition in Moscow (1992). She has been playing around the globe since she had her first massive series of fifteen recitals in Japan when she was only thirteen years old. A number of new works have been composed with a view to her bright personality. So, the present-day classic Rodion Shchedrin dedicated his Piano Concerto No. 6 (2003) to Ekaterina.
Yuri Simonov is a representative of the old guard of domestic conductors. He comes from the legendary Leningrad circle of the 1960s. For many years, Simonov’s work was associated with opera and ballet. So, from 1969 to 1985, he served at the Bolshoi Theater and subsequently conducted numerous opera projects overseas. This fact left a significant imprint on the master’s style – massive forms, open temperament, wide tempos. The same signs are inherent in his Chopin interpretations, which makes them special and original. Such an approach makes interaction with the soloist a unique experience. Even if it’s not always the case, Simonov and Mechetina find the same key to understanding and translating the intention that the composer put into his two opera magna.
Created at the very end of the early Polish period and presented by the composer in Warsaw literally on the eve of his emigration, the Chopin concertos became the first culmination of the composer’s style. Previously finding his ideal in the sound of the piano and never truly striving beyond the limits of solo music-making, Chopin felt the need for a larger statement in 1829 and 1830. Undoubtedly, it was dictated by the rise of his performing career. Any pianist of that time who claimed fame and authority had to appear before the public against the backdrop of the orchestra and play works that demonstrated his gift in the most favorable light. Writing concertos was the easiest way to achieve a combination of both. The fast-paced movements boasted playing technique, while the slow ones revealed subtle emotions, while the timbre of the piano was set off by strings and winds. For the first half of the 19th century, the European virtuosi wrote hundreds of such pieces, which made it all look like real professional madness. Almost all of them are now of value only for curious connoisseurs of antiquity because a good musician is not always a talented composer. Chopin was, of course, an exception. Indeed, his concertos had everything that was necessary for self-presentation – minute passages and brilliant cadenzas – but the soul of the music was filled with enthusiastic romantic melodies with rich orchestral accompaniment. It is no coincidence that the most expressive movements of both concertos are traditionally the slow ones. The way they are interpreted is always a subject for critics, and they are also a touchstone for the performers’ skills and originality.
