The decisive and absorbing interpretive profile that Nelson Goerner brought to his 1997 EMI debut Chopin release may have softened around the edges over the past decades, yet it unquestionably permeates this set of Nocturnes. Goerner generally favors animated tempos, or at least tempos that seem animated due to the pianist’s shapely projection of the rolling left-hand accompaniments. These in turn provide a solid center from which the right-hand cantelinas take imaginative wing, with phrasings and accentuations that avoid squareness at all costs.
The three Op. 9 works and the D-flat Nocturne Op. 27 No. 2 gain welcome vibrancy without sacrificing lyrical nuance, while Op. 15 No. 2’s decorative writing benefits from a greater variety of articulation than is common today. Perhaps Op. 48 No. 1’s torrential descending octaves lack the cutting brilliance and force of Goerner’s earlier EMI version, and one could imagine more intensity in Op. 27 No. 1’s central major-key climax. However, Op. 32 No. 2’s waltzing middle section opens in full-bodied fashion, and Op. 72 No. 1 unfolds with more linear independence than usual.
Op. 37 No. 2’s celebrated thirds are smooth and curvaceous, although it took several hearings for Goerner’s almost reticent, held-back approach to Op. 55 No. 1’s opening pages to make its case (I’m 75 percent convinced!). But the mobility and point with which Goerner untangles Op. 55 No. 2’s contrapuntal web wins me over. The Op. 62 Nocturnes are more contained and less fancifully phrased than Goerner’s earlier live versions from his 2009 Wigmore Hall recital. In short, Goerner’s Nocturnes may not displace your chosen favorites (mine include Moravec, Freire, Arrau, and Pires), but you won’t regret making room for them in your collection.
