Cortot: Chopin Etudes Opp. 10 & 25 (rec. 1942) - LVSM FJLP 5050

Jacket VG / LP VG This handsome and exceedingly rare LP from La Voix de son Maitre (FJLP 5050, French pressing, cream/brown semi-circle label, mono) features Alfred Cortot's remarkable traversal of Chopin's complete Etudes Op. 10 and Op. 25, recorded at the Studio Albert, Paris on 2 and 4 December 1942. If the date of the liner notes (by Yvonne Tiénot – in French only) is to be taken as an indication, this LP was issued in 1955. To my knowledge, this remains the only LP issue of these performances. It is Cortot's 1933 HMV traversal that is far more commonly encountered, most often in the HMV COLH and EMI Références series. It certainly must rank among the supreme Cortot rarities. It seems worth re-printing David Dubal's insightful comments, from his indispensable The Art of the Piano, regarding Cortot and the Chopin Etudes: "Naturally, Cortot put his hand to Chopin's twenty-seven Etudes, although when Rachmaninoff was asked his opinion of Cortot's recorded Etudes, the titanic virtuoso