Pollini Celebrates Chopin B-day
The flood of Chopin performances and recordings launched by the 200th anniversary of the composer’s birth shows no sign of abating. To celebrate, I hied to Carnegie Hall last night to hear an all-Chopin recital by Maurizio Pollini. Pollini is commonly criticized for playing Chopin too cerebrally, and there were times in this concert when I could have used a more personal touch. But the Sonata No. 2 in B-flat Minor was thrillingly thought-out, and the A-flat Major Polonaise (“Heroic”) almost made me forget the 8 million other times I have heard it.
