While Alfred Cortot’s legendary 1933 cycle of the Chopin Etudes Op.10 (and 1934 account of the Etudes Op.25) have been regularly released over the course of the many decades since their first publication, the pianist’s 1942 traversal of both books of Etudes has been less available.
Recorded at the Studio Albert in Paris on November 2 and 4, 1942, this later cycle was released on 78rpm discs at the time and then on a French HMV LP in the 1950s, but were rarely available outside of France or anywhere after that time. They first came to wider attention when they were included in a 1990s 6-CD set produced by EMI France featuring a great many of Cortot’s Chopin recordings.
At the time, critics found them less interesting than Cortot’s more known cycle – and certainly, the poor transfers and quick fade-outs after each short work didn’t do much to warm the listener to these readings. However, upon closer examination, one can appreciate that Cortot is in fact in remarkably fine form in these accounts, in some cases playing with more precision and just as much fire as in his performances from almost ten years earlier.
Instantly recognizable are the élan, elegance, refinement, and nobility of Cortot’s playing: fluid phrasing, a singing tone at all dynamic shadings (and even in rapid works), creative voicing, and the pianist’s inimitable rubato are all on full display.
In both 1942 and ’43 the pianist not only re-recorded the Etudes but also the Preludes and Waltzes; less known is the fact that he recorded all of the Polonaises and Scherzi, which he did not record at any other time and pressings of which have not been found (one certainly hopes that copies will be located).
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