Any pianist with the nerve and at least 97 percent of the capability to tackle all 24 Chopin Etudes–in the face of serious catalogue competition–automatically grabs my attention. That said, Irena Portenko’s inconsistent interpretations face serious challenges from other recorded versions. In Op. 10, No. 1’s extended arpeggios are unevenly dispatched and not quite note perfect by the digital age’s unforgiving standards; No. 2’s difficult, unrelenting chromatic right-hand 16th notes are all there, but not effortlessly so. The lyrical No. 3 and No. 6 wander and drag. While Nos. 5 (the “Black Key”), 8, and 12 (the “Revolutionary”) are appreciably light and fleet if unevenly articulated, No. 4’s virtuosic interplay between hands falls powerfully into place.
Portenko appears to be more technically and musically on top of the Op. 25 group, as her clean and well characterized readings of Nos. 1, 2, 4, 5, 9, and 12 reveal. However, the degrees of suppleness, assurance, dynamism, and interpretive freedom needed to go beyond mere fluency are not quite within her reach in the two double note etudes (Nos. 6 and 8), the Octave etude (No. 10), and in the cascading figurations of No. 11. Furthermore Portenko has a tendency to place long fermatas on most introductory single-note upbeats, a mannerism that many pianists share. The lifelike, vibrant engineering typifies Blue Griffin’s usual high sonic standards.
