Koczalski plays Chopin’s Ballade No. 1 on an 1847 Pleyel (live, 1948)

The Polish pianist Raoul Koczalski (1884-1948) plays Frédéric Chopin’s Ballade in G minor, Opus 23, on the composer’s Pleyel. It’s a live recording (from the Polish radio archives) made in 1948, where Koczalski slightly lost his way around 4:55, but he could recover quickly. The abundant use of rubato here is certainly not to everyone’s taste. Also, to modern ears the pitch may not sound correct as the instrument was tuned considerably lower than what we are now accustomed to. Nevertheless, I think it’s an important historic recording...