The Worst Beatle

Today there are many players of unusual abilities playing Chopin -- players who seem at home in his melancholically lyrical style, who can apply rubato to a melody without breaking the pulse and attend to the music's inner voices -- but there are no Chopinists. There are no pianists whose reputations are primarily based on Chopin performance or whose playing of Chopin is consistently compelling.

[...] some of the most important recorded performances of Chopin were made by a Frenchman who was rarely flip or colorless and who made "poetic divination" a musical religion: Alfred Cortot. Cortot studied with a Chopin pupil, Emile Decombes, and recorded many Chopin pieces several times before his death in 1962. Few of his performances have been easily accessible in recent years, but a six-CD EMI set available as an import amply documents Cortot's standing as a consummate Chopinist.