I concluded my review of Nikita Magaloff’s 1954 Chopin B minor sonata remastered via Decca’s short-lived Heritage Reissue series (type Q8255 in Search Reviews) with a plea for the distinguished pianist’s 1956 Chopin Mazurka cycle, which I first got to know as a mid-1970s budget LP reissue. It now appears for the first time on CD, thanks to Universal Classics Japan’s Chopin bicentennial survey of vintage Decca, DG, and Philips recordings.
Harold C. Schoenberg dismissed Magaloff’s Mazurkas as “tame, lacking in tension and tonal resource.” I don’t agree. Shapeful purpose consistently informs Magaloff’s melodic projection, while his rubatos are original without sounding contrived. Magaloff’s phrasing and accentuation always underline Chopin’s radical harmonic ideas, replete with piquant, sharply profiled ornaments.
To be sure, Magaloff’s remakes benefit from additional breadth and tone color, abetted by Philips’ warmer, updated engineering. They also include the posthumously published youthful Mazurkas (the present release offers the “traditional” 51, as do Rubinstein’s three utterly different yet equally indispensable Mazurka cycles). Still, Magaloff’s polished playing and musical intelligence make his earlier cycle worthwhile. You know the rule regarding desirable Japanese reissues: don’t put off buying today what you will not be able to buy tomorrow.
