This boxed set gathers John Field’s pioneering piano Nocturnes alongside all 21 of Chopin’s works in the genre, together with interesting nocturnes by their contemporaries, including Camille Pleyel, Frédéric Kalkbrenner, Clara Schumann, Charles-Valentin Alkan, and Maria Szymanowska, among others. Pianist Bart van Oort employs an 1823 Broadwood throughout the Field selections, and takes full advantage of the misty half-tints resulting from the instrument’s sustain pedal. This is not to say that van Oort wallows in coloristic effects, for a strong, decisive left hand propels his brisk, no-nonsense tempos. The Seventh Nocturne’s steady left-hand chords, for example, take on a twangy resonance that creates a hypnotic cumulative effect unlike any modern-instrument interpretation I’ve heard on disc. No. 11’s left-hand triplet figurations also come to the fore with an almost Beethovenian urgency that transports the music from the salon to the saloon!
Similar qualities hold true in the Chopin Nocturnes, divided between an 1842 Pleyel and an 1837 Erard, where the instruments’ wider dynamic compass and registral differentiation give convincing sonorous voice to van Oort’s conceptions. He brings more nervous energy than usual to the “easy” G minor Nocturnes, and a long-lined sense of proportion to the often pounded-out middle sections of the F major (Op. 15 No. 1) and C minor (Op. 48 No. 1) selections. While Op. 55 No. 2’s inspired two-part polyphony lacks clarity and Op. 62 No. 1’s trills are not as sexy as they should be, van Oort more than compensates with stylish, well-considered embellishments in the posthumous C-sharp minor Nocturne, the A-flat Op. 32 No. 2, and the hackneyed Op. 9 No. 2. As both scholar and musical communicator, van Oort clearly knows what he’s doing, and he complements his absorbing interpretations with equally cogent booklet notes. A release well worth seeking out. [8/11/2005]
