Rather than presenting Chopin’s waltzes in numerical order, as is often the case, Dmitri Alexeev reorders the “basic 14” to maximize their diversity. The five posthumously published waltzes follow. I’m afraid that this 1985 EMI recording, reissued at budget price, contains little to get excited about. Alexeev launches into the F major Waltz’s “dog chasing its tail” right-hand eighth notes at a faster tempo than the introductory chords indicate, tossing all punctuation out the window in the process. The Minute Waltz’s similarly conceived patterns whirl in a blur, save for a few mincing tenutos, and the E minor Waltz also is glibly tossed off. The C-sharp minor and A minor Waltzes fail to sing under Alexeev’s dutiful, plodding fingers. The pianist’s melodic pointing in the A-flat Op. 64 No. 3 is supported by a pale, held-back bass line, and his heavy, emphatic touch is totally wrong for the G-flat Waltz’s easy charm.
Turn to the five posthumous Waltzes, though, and you’ve got a whole different pianist. Here Alexeev seems truly engaged by the music, and imbues these slight yet attractive pieces with color, character, and a flexible, singing line. Oddly enough, these five waltzes also brought out the best in Nikita Magaloff’s and Claudio Arrau’s respective Chopin Waltz cycles. Nevertheless, Arthur Rubinstein’s impeccably poised traversals of the standard 14 Waltzes remain the reference versions among modern contenders.
