Vladimir Horowitz once described Chopin’s Polonaise-Fantasie as more fantasy than polonaise. Under Vladimir Bunin’s prosaic fingers, though, the work emerges as neither. The pianist doggedly hammers out the Berceuse in a manner akin to Chinese water torture while plowing through the Barcarolle with little feeling for its lilting ebb and flow, let alone its sublime harmonic riches. Bunin’s rippling, poker-faced treatment of the A minor Waltz (Op. 34 No. 2) makes a convincing foil to the introspection with which most pianists infuse this work. The F major Waltz is snappily dispatched, but Bunin’s fussily phrased Minute Waltz, E-flat Waltz Op. 18, and A-flat Polonaise draw more attention to the pianist’s interpretive tics than Chopin’s genius. Bunin’s steady and texturally differentiated Marche Funèbre highlights the Second Sonata. He takes the finale’s unison octaves at less than Chopin’s Presto, yet his deliberation clarifies the movement’s cascading melodic fabric. But Bunin destroys Chopin’s stinging surprise on the concluding notes by playing them quietly, whereas the composer clearly indicates the opposite. A weird conclusion to an uneven recital.
