Chopin: Etudes

Advantages: The most beautiful performance of a superb collection
Disadvantages: The CD has an end!

...of the Revolutionary Etude to the perfectly executed militarism of the Polonaise Militaire, and breathing new life even to the most over-played pieces such as the Nocturne in Eb. The collection is refreshing and exciting- there are some less well-known Chopin pieces thrown in for good measure, and these serve as a light relief from the 'big guns'- such as the Nocturne in Db, No.8. It is difficult for me to emphasise how enchanted I am with Idil Biret's playing- I apologise for the constant repetition of this. There is not one interpretation that I would disagree with, indeed, when learning the Revolutionary Etude I found her input indispensable- this is a rarely unleashed piece and she plays it in a style not only adept at the discovery of meaning behind the piece but also crucially at the technical methods by which Chopin would have let these loose... Read review

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Advantages: good story, well written, short
Disadvantages: none

...Mikhail Gorbachev, the last President of the Soviet Union, is often quoted with the sentence, ?He who comes late is punished by life." Kate Chopin (1851 - 1904), author of The Awakening experienced after its publication: ?She who comes early is punished by life.? Chopin began writing when she was widowed at the age of 32 to support herself and her six children, her stories and sketches were published in magazines and were well accepted as was her first novel At Fault, she gained national recognition during the 1890s as a member of the local-colour movement focusing attention upon the distinctive regional cultures of America. She lived in New Orleans and northwest Louisiana for many years where she got to know the Creole culture. In 1899 her second novel The Awakening, a novella rather of only 116 pages, was published ending her... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Very readable, great characters
Disadvantages: Its too short!

...Kate Chopin's The Awakening was published in 1899 and follows the life of Edna Pontellier living in the Creole south around the end of the late 19th century. This work of fiction is very short, but extremely engaging. I studied this book on a course entitled Nationalisms & Sexualities (the same course on which I read The Story of an African Farm - for which I have published a ciao review for entitled 'There's No Story Here...') and the focus of my study was mainly on this main character, Edna. My Digireads.com Classics edition of The Awakening was very cheap and the story spans a mere 85 pages in my edition. However, the text is small and the page margins are minimal, so I should imagine the Oxford World Classics edition (pictured) is slightly thicker and probably has more background material with it. The Awakening follows Edna... Read review

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