The "What are you listening now?" thread

[Bridge]

Listening to the Ballade no. 1 myself.

Personally, I like Rubinstein's interpretation best. This one sounds a bit too rushed at the ending, while Rubinstein really gets the tempo and dynamics right and makes all the notes sound crystal clear.

I'm not too familiar with Rubinstein's version of it (quite new to the piece itself, actually), but I think Claudio Arrau is by far the best Chopin interpreter, as blasphemous as that may sound (Rubinstein is of course the obvious choice). His interpretations of the Nocturnes are far beyond anyone else's IMO.

Especially Nocturnes 15 and 16, op. 55:





Just sublime.

EDIT: Actually, speaking of, do you have any tips for playing parallel octaves apart from just practice? I'm learning this piece at the moment and am having a bit of trouble with the Piu mosso part (around 03:15).