“In Rachmaninoff’s G major Prelude, Pollack applies deft and vibrant colors to its pastels and tender oils. Here is a pianist with genuine sympathy for Rachmaninov. The G-sharp Minor Prelude churns, rocks, and soars in liquid agitation, forceful without having been forced, persuasive and dynamic at once…”
“The Franck Prelude, Chorale et Fugue (1884) receives a driven performance, pointed from the very first toward a firm sense of resolution. Pollack successfully takes on the challenge of the intricately massive Polonaise-Fantasie of Chopin, leisurely establishing its weaving contour, which fuses elements of ballade, fantasy, and Polish dance-form. The disarming F Major Ballade (1837) at first rings with the soft colors of a Gallic noel, only to explode into frenzied articulate passion and spiritual revolt. Pollack the lion alternately snarls and brandishes the velvet paw in exotic tension…”
“Finally, the perennial Polonaise in A-flat Major (1842), with its grand declamations of Polish aristocracy of spirit, its unquenchable pride of place. Pollack’s sheer finesse, his innate bravura and suavity of transition, rank this performance with the epics we know from Rubinstein, Horowitz, and Cziffra, dignitaries in the Chopin style of the first order, the Knights Templar of the spirit.”
–Gary Lemco, Audiophile
Included on this Recording:
- Sergei Rachmaninov. Prelude in G minor op.23 no.5
- Sergei Rachmaninov. Prelude in G major op.32 no.5
- Sergei Rachmaninov. Prelude in G sharp minor op.32 no.12
- Cesar Franck. Prelude, Chorale and Fugue
- Frederic Chopin. Mazurka in A minor op.17 no.4
- Frederic Chopin. Scherzo no.3 in C sharp minor
- Frederic Chopin. Polonaise-Fantasie in A flat major
- Frederic Chopin. Ballade no.2 in F major
- Frederic Chopin. Polonaise in A flat major