The legend of Ivo Pogorelich began with a firestorm of controversy in 1980, when the then 22-year old Croatian pianist was eliminated from the third round of the 10th Chopin International Competition. His unorthodox performances, breathtaking for both their virtuosity and wild interpretive liberties, deeply polarized the jury. One juror accused him of disrespecting Chopin by indulging “extremes to the point of distortion”; Martha Argerich, enchanted by his “genius,” resigned her seat in protest, excoriating the panel for its “entrenched conservatism.”
In his two-decade long partnership with Deutsche Grammophon that followed, Pogorelich embraced his lightning rod status and grew along with it. By the time he made this 1998 recording of Chopin’s four Scherzos, eighteen years after the competition scandal, he’d whittled eccentricity, ego, and excess into fine instruments.
All scherzos should contain a whiff of mischief, but Pogorelich goes a step further (and often, perhaps, a step far). From the churlish opening melody of the First Scherzo to the impish octaves that conclude the Fourth, he takes every opportunity to instigate, rankle, and get under the skin of pearl-clutchers. Those accustomed to more genteel, Rubinstein-esque Chopin may find themselves jolted by Pogorelich’s labile changes in tempo, jostling rubato, and fickle phrasing. Ultimately, he reminds us, the word “scherzo” derives from the Italian word for “joke” or “jest.” It’s never clear exactly who these jokes are being played on — the listener? Chopin? Pogorelich himself? — or whether they are even funny. What is clear, and abundantly so, is that this Chopin is conceptualized like no other.