Album review Fanfare Magazine - USA
CHOPIN 21 Nocturnes • Marie François (pn) • EVIL PENGUIN 0070 (2 CDs: 107:44)
”These uniformly excellent recordings of Chopin’s famous Nocturnes were recorded, the notes tell us, “somewhere in Belgium, in the middle of the night, from the 7th until the 11th of November, 2024.” I suppose that means in the middle of four nights. I find myself hoping she got home alright. According to the pianist, these nocturnal performances were the end of a lengthy process of acculturation. In order to “get closer to the music and, through that, to get closer to Chopin himself,” Marie François moved to Warsaw. The goal was to “hear the language he spoke, walk the streets he knew … [to] speak with people who understand his music deeply.” Though it’s hard to believe in, I like the idea of a city filled with wandering Chopin experts. What matters is of course what the pianist thought as she studied one nocturne after another in the city in which Chopin grew up. Writing in Brussels later, François asked the question, “Who doesn’t love Chopin’s Nocturnes?”
Most pianists do: I have a stack of complete Nocturnes by pianists such as Rubinstein, Arrau, Pollini, Pires, Engerer, and Ohlsson. It’s a hard party to crash, but François should be considered alongside them. She plays with both vigor and sensitivity. She plays these Nocturnes dramatically, not averse to swells of sound as what I just heard in Nocturne op. 9/2, for instance. And during her recording of opus 15/1, she brings out the contrasting impassioned and wistful pages, playing rippling passages cleanly and with subtle dynamics. I admire her boldness on Nocturne opus 55/2. (My recordings go back to Ignaz Friedman’s rendition from the mid-1930s.) Hers is a robust, lively version of the Nocturnes. My favorites include her opus 62/1. François’s Chopin isn’t just dreamy: her playing is rhythmically sound, and her tone lovely. I rather like her assertion that her view of these works is constantly changing in subtle ways. She’s a thinker as well as a brilliantly accomplished instrumentalist.” Michael Ullman
