Louis Lortie plays Chopin Volume 5

   in Piano International (Jan, 2018)
After his album of Waltzes and a handful of Nocturnes in Volume 4, Louis Lortie has turned his attention to Chopin’s output of Polish dances for his latest collection, rounded off by the virtuosic Allegro de concert in A major (1841). The imaginatively constructed programme mixes three sets of Mazurkas – early (1830-1), middle (1837-8) and late (1845), rightly played as complete sets – punctuated by the two Op 26 Polonaises, equally correctly kept separate, and the F-sharp minor Op 44. In Lortie’s expert hands, this nicely contrasts Chopin’s treatments of the dances: the Mazurkas as miniatures, usually in intimate groups (here five, four and three respectively), but the Polonaises …