Alfred Cortot (piano)

Alfred Cortot (1877 - 1962) was renowned above all as a pianist whose interpretations, especially of the works of Schumann,
Debussy and Chopin, were often on a spiritual level. This 1953 performance of Chopin’s Piano Sonata No. 2 is his fifth and final commercial recording of the work (the 1928 recording is available on Naxos 8.111065; the 1927 recording is unissued). Cortot wanted to record the work again partly because he felt his interpretation would be ‘an example for the young pianists, who are so little imbued with the Romantic spirit’.

His 1953 and third recording of Schumann’s Kinderszenen is notable for the familiar singing tone and poetic warmth he brings to Kind im Einschlummern (Child falling asleep) and Der Dichter spricht (The poet speaks). Cortot’s interpretation of the youthful romanticism of Carnaval is full of colour and character,far preferable to bland and uninspired subsequent accounts from lesser pianists.

A critic wrote after Cortot’s 5th January 1927 recital at New York’s Aeolian Hall: “He is one of those great musicians from whose readings of familiar works there is almost invariably something to learn and remember… it would be hard to surpass his sincerity, his feeling, his colouring, and declamation of the music. Nor are many as fortunate as he in striking the mean between what is nobly expressive and what is sentimental….”