CD series featuring a specific venue are rarer than those issued by ensembles but in one way more promising: the venue can issue live performances that have manifestly been well received. Consider this
Chopin recital by Argentine-born pianist
Nelson Goerner, emerging as one of Europe's top
Chopin specialists. The engineers from London's Wigmore Hall retain generous stretches of the applause that follows at the end of each work, and you can feel the audience warming to
Goerner's approach as the concert proceeds. He is not an exceptionally powerful pianist, but his readings are poetic, with a strong sense of the long line in the opening Polonaise-Fantaisie in A flat major, Op. 61, and the Andante spianato and grande polonaise in E flat major, Op. 22. The shorter Nocturnes, Op. 62, placed between these works have a remarkable floating quality that draws you in consistently. The bulk of the program goes over to the 12 Etudes, Op. 10, which allow
Goerner to showcase his technical precision in a quiet, confident way. Following his fellow South American
Claudio Arrau,
Goerner plays the etudes as a complete set, with only natural pauses between them -- plausible for those who like to hear them this way but questionable in view of the lack of any evidence that
Chopin or his followers commonly did so. Still, an above-average
Chopin recital on the contemplative side.