Chopin Mazurkas Op 56 No 3 & Op 24 No 2 Ax Rec 1987

I traveled down to Orange county last Sunday to hear Emanuel Ax perform at the new Soka Performance Arts Center. The center had recently purchased two new Steinway pianos for their concert hall -- a Hamburg and a New York Steinway. Ax was the first pianist to perform on them in a recital of variations-- Copland’s Piano Variations (1930), Haydn’s F minor Variations, Beethoven’s “Eroica“ Variations and Schumann’s Etudes en forme de variations (Symphonic Etudes). Ax performed the Schumann on the New York Steinway after intermission. Ax,who is on my very short list of favorite living pianists, played with the usual mastery that one expects from him. Los Angeles Times reviewer Rick Schultz, called attention to Ax’s “meticulously etched rendition“ of the Haydn, the “ exhilaratingly earthy and visceral“ performance of the Beethoven and the pianists’ “full range of moods from dreamy and reflective to impetuous and passionate“ in the Schumann. This li