Ingrid Fliter - Chopin: Preludes (2014) [Hi-Res]

Argentine-Italian pianist Ingrid Fliter is emerging as a Chopin specialist and appears to have signed on with the Linn label. It's a good place for her somewhat intellectual yet dramatic and idiosyncratic Chopin, which will probably have as many reactions as it has hearers. This is all to the good. Fliter's readings are serious and ambitious, and she seems almost to seek out and linger on the harmonic clashes built into Chopin's accompaniments. There is intense contrast among even pieces of similar tempo and mood; she treats each prelude as an individual work of art, losing any contact with the prelude form's improvisatory (or quasi-improvisatory) origins. Moreover, she seems to take pains to make the 24 preludes into a coherent set, with peaks and valleys of intensity as she goes along. At times the piano is quiet to the point of being retiring; at others the upper register is given a very strong ringing quality. This is, in a word, individualistic Chopin -- and Chopin was a great individualist. It's a release that will keep listeners thinking over several hearings, which might cause some to change their minds about it one way or the other. If the album had been recorded for a less audiophile-oriented label than Linn, it might not have been quite as compelling. ~ James Manheim