Vladimir de Pachmann (1848-1933): Chopin - Ballade in Ab

[russtunes]

Absolutely wonderful! God know what it must have sounded like in the same room as him!

[smithsherman]

For me,his version is always very old-style...as it empbodies a kind of totally surprise oriented whimsical phrase expression above all,As was & is best typified by performers in the Castrati tradition of 18th century Italy's Bel Canto(and can be seen at Youtube in videos of Luisa Tetrazzini's singing.).I always enjoy this,but the comb-

ination of these values plus severe emotional affect makes Paderewski's version my favorite.