CHOPIN:FANTAISIE/FOU TS'ONG

Fou Ts'ong's excellently recorded Chopin series continues with four late works, and with some of the best playing that I have heard from him. Outstanding pianistic craft is displayed almost everywhere, as in the double trills of the Barcarolle and treble trills of the Polonaise-Fantaisie... In some quiet passages of the Barcarolle, as in the Berceuse's exquisite traceries, Fou Ts'ong approaches Debussy's ideal of a piano without hammers, his tone suggesting the utmost sensitivity. And in the Barcarolle, though every detail is exactly shaped, it is the grand sweep of the music as a whole that dominates.

Without underestimating the problems of the other pieces, it can safely be said that the Polonaise-Fantaisie is the most difficult work here to interpret. Fou Ts'ong does many excellent things, especially in the poco pià lento section; and note the dream-like reverie in which the music restarts after the return of the introductory gestures. But he does not achieve quite the flow, the sense of conviction, that mark his other...performances. Just the same, this issue still should have the attention of all Chopin collectors.

-- Gramophone [7/1979, reviewing the Berceuse, Barcarolle, and the Polonaise-Fantaisie]