Not the first, second, or third recordings of
Chopin's concertos one should hear -- they are far too antique for that -- these are recordings that one will have to hear after one gets to know and love the works. Why? Because both are vastly different but equally convincing performances by two of the greatest Polish pianists of the early years of the twentieth century: Moriz Rosenthal in the Concerto No. 1 in E minor and
Josef Hofmann in the Concerto No. 2 in F minor. Rosenthal was in his time the epitome of the romantic Polish
Chopin tradition -- that is, he was a wildly virtuosic and extravagantly emotional player -- but his time was slightly past when he recorded the E minor Concerto in the studio with the
Berlin State Opera Orchestra under Frieder Weissmann in November 1930 and March 1931, and the results, while radically different from the postwar international
Chopin style, are wholly persuasive if contemporary listeners can shed their preconceptions. On the other hand,
Hofmann was the apex of the modern Polish
Chopin style -- that is, an intensely virtuosic but much more emotionally restrained player -- and he was at the peak of his powers when he recorded the F minor Concerto live with the
New York Philharmonic under John Barbirolli in March 1936, and his performance has the strength, sensitivity, and conviction that mark the best of the postwar Polish
Chopin style. Though the overall sound is severely compromised -- and though the
New York Philharmonic in the F minor Concerto might as well be playing somewhere in New Jersey -- the piano sound itself is decent enough so that the listener can tell what's going on at the keyboard and, in the end, that's what really matters.