I first heard pianist Jocelyn Swigger on a solo CD featuring American piano music with jazz influences, where she also offered improvisations. Swigger devoted the past seven-odd years to practicing and performing the Chopin Etudes, and has recently recorded them on a colorfully plangent 1841 Erard concert grand. For the most part, her hard work has paid off, and there’s much to admire.
In Op. 10 No. 1, Swigger’s extended right-hand arpeggios ebb and flow with flexibility against a shapely bass cantus firmus. No. 2’s treacherous chromatic right-hand 16th-notes take effortless melodic wing, although No. 3’s tempos are fast to the point of impatience and even glibness. Swigger brings out the conversational qualities of No. 4 without sacrificing bravura, while serving up a lithe and limber No. 5 “Black Key” Etude. Again, No. 6 unfolds too fast for the extraordinary harmonies to register, while Swigger’s ornaments and textual alterations fascinate more than they convince.
By emphasizing No. 11’s top melody, Swigger winds up not articulating the wide-spreading arpeggiated chords with consistent definition. By contrast, No. 12, the “Revolutionary”, surges with terse drama. The Erard’s singular tonal qualities come into their own in the “Aeolian Harp” Etude Op. 25 No. 1, although Swigger’s speeding up in certain phrases somehow dissipates the lyrical arc. I hear similarly telegraphed downbeats in No. 2 (meaning that the right hand sometimes arrives at the start of a measure a split second before the left hand), yet nevertheless appreciate how Swigger seems to give each hand its own timbral distinction. No. 5’s outer sections dash from the starting gate, while the central major-key episode ought to sing out more. Much as I like Swigger’s interesting phrasings in No. 6’s left-hand countermelodies, her right-hand double thirds lack steadfast focus and absolute evenness when compared (perhaps unfairly) alongside Perahia, Pollini, Ashkenazy, and Zayas, not to mention the old Lhevinne and Freidman recordings.
The Erard’s limited sustaining power may have governed Swigger’s headlong basic tempo for No. 7, which doesn’t allow for the note-filled climaxes to expand and project in true bel canto fashion. No. 9, the “Butterfly”, starts out light and crisp, but gets heavier and more emphatic as it progresses. Swigger’s unusually angular and urgent approach to the No. 10 “Octave” Etude proves most striking in the central B major section where almost everyone else relaxes. While the No. 11 “Winter Wind” conveys scampering energy, I miss similar sweep and majesty in the underplayed No. 12.
Of the three Nouvelles Etudes, I prefer Swigger’s uncommonly intense and epic way with the F minor. In the D-flat, however, she works too hard to be expressive. Her overly brisk and clipped A-flat Etude does not consistently maintain the composer’s steady “three-against-two” rhythmic pattern; sometimes Swigger’s left-hand phrases in “two” lapse into triplets. In all, Swigger at her best brings a fresh voice to these thrice-familiar pieces.
