Eliane Rodrigues - Chopin: Notturno (2017)

Navona Records’ Notturno: The Complete Nocturnes and Ballades of Chopin is a fresh look at some of the Polish composer’s most expressive works. The nocturnes and ballades are also some of Chopin’s most innovative works, displaying exciting advancements in harmony, rhythm, and form all renewed in pianist Eliane Rodrigues’s nuanced, thoughtful performances, recorded in Sacilie, Italy’s acoustically advanced Fazioli Concert Hall.

Although he didn’t invent the piano nocturne, Chopin popularized it and certainly improved it beyond a mere character piece. He was heavily influenced by the sensuous melodies of bel canto opera arias, and developed a freer sense of rhythm and expression as a result, the nocturnes exude an abstract mood or atmosphere. Chopin did, however, invent the piano ballade a genre with its own distinct forms and qualities. His four ballades most directly contrast the nocturnes in their abstract narrative style very different from “mood” pieces, they were likely inspired by poems by Adam Mickiewicz.

Taking a page from Chopin’s own unwritten ballade narratives, Rodrigues includes text by Jantien Brys to accompany each nocturne, each one telling a sort of story without sacrificing the essential atmospheric nature of the nocturne. She writes, “For me, the Nocturnes are like a diary of Chopin, so Jantien wrote the texts as if they were excerpts from a fictional diary of his.” Rodrigues’s performances, influenced by these new texts, bring the listener a new kind of emotional connection to Chopin and music.

TRACKLIST

CD1

01. Nocturnes, Op. 9: No. 1 in B-Flat Minor
02. Nocturnes, Op. 9: No. 2 in E-Flat Major
03. Nocturnes, Op. 9: No. 3 in B Major
04. Nocturnes, Op. 15: No. 1 in F Major
05. Nocturnes, Op. 15: No. 2 in F-Sharp Major
06. Nocturnes, Op. 15: No. 3 in G Minor
07. Nocturnes, Op. 27: No. 1 in C-Sharp Minor
08. Nocturnes, Op. 27: No. 2 in D-Flat Major
09. Nocturnes, Op. 32: No. 1 in B Major
10. Nocturnes, Op. 32: No. 2 in A-Flat Major
11. Nocturnes, Op. 37: No. 1 in G Minor
12. Ballade No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 23

CD2

01. Nocturnes, Op. 37: No. 2 in G Major
02. Nocturnes, Op. 48: No. 1 in C Minor
03. Nocturnes, Op. 48: No. 2 in F-Sharp Minor
04. Nocturnes, Op. 55: No. 1 in F Minor
05. Nocturnes, Op. 55: No. 2 in E-Flat Major
06. Nocturnes, Op. 62: No. 1 in B Major
07. Nocturnes, Op. 62: No. 2 in E Major
08. Nocturne in E Minor, Op. Posth. 72 No. 1
09. Nocturne in C-Sharp Minor, Op. Posth., B. 49
10. Nocturne in C Minor, Op. Posth., B. 108
11. Ballade No. 4 in F Minor, Op. 52
12. Ballade No. 2 in F Major, Op. 38 (Bonus Track)
13. Ballade No. 3 in A-Flat Major, Op. 47 (Bonus Track)