Ignaz Friedman plays Mazurkas by Chopin

In the art of Ignaz Friedman (1882-1948) one hears the culmination of high-Romanticism. His genius and encounters with Polish folk culture enabled him to perform Chopin's Mazurkas in a rhythmic manner resembling the accounts given of Chopin's own playing. Even the reticent Vladimir Horowitz, who treasured Friedman's friendship, described his playing of several of the Chopin Etudes as unsurpassed.

Friedman edited the complete works of Chopin for Breitkopf and Hartel as well as a sizeable amount of works by Liszt, Schumann, Mendelssohn and technical studies by Neupert for Universal and Hansen.

(by Allan Evans, American musicologist and record producer)

[Ignaz Friedman] does not play by the book — he was a true child of the late romantic age and, especially in the Chopin, his rhythms, accents and volcanic approach are apt to unsettle conservative listeners. But the more one hears them, the more one admires.

(from “Great Pianists" by Harold C. Schonberg)