Guest
Alfred Cortot's legendary June 18 & 21, 1934 recording of Chopin's Etudes in the same order in which the works were presented on the original 78rpm discs. Because recording technology at the time required music to be recorded in 4-to-5-minute segments for each side of a 12-inch 78rpm disc, Cortot did not record the works in chronological order so as to maximize the playing time on each record. LP and CD transfers of these performances have tended to issue the recordings in the usual chronological order, so I thought it might be interesting to hear the order in which Cortot played them on 78s. In same cases, Cortot plays three etudes in a row, with only a second or two's pause and no editing possible. Having previously set down the Etudes the previous year (along with a staggering number of other works), Cortot returned to London's Abbey Road Studio No.3 to record the cycle as well as the 14 Waltzes, and to rerecord some of the Preludes. With the limited tim
