The late Ronald Smith’s 1975 recordings of Chopin’s Mazurkas are extremely uneven. The pianist is good at clarifying Chopin’s linear writing through varied articulations and balances, and he frequently changes emphasis between hands when material is repeated, notably in the earlier, less complex Mazurkas and the strangely rustic Op. 24 No. 2 and Op. 56 No. 2 selections in C major. However, Smith often lacks a genuine feeling for the Mazurka rhythm, and his vigorous, emphatic phrasing sometimes lurches against the music’s melodic logic, like a singer who breathes in all the wrong places while mispronouncing the words. For example, in the E minor Op. 17 No. 2, C-sharp minor Op. 63 No. 3, and B-flat minor Op. 24 No. 4 Mazurkas, Smith’s fidgety tempo adjustments make a choppy impression. Smith’s virtues best manifest themselves when he exudes less interpretive effort, as in the Op. 50 and Op. 59 sets. For a more consistently idiomatic complete Mazurka account, Garrick Ohlsson’s Arabesque recordings remain top contenders, not to mention Rubinstein’s reference versions of the “traditional” 51.
