This is the most pleasing performance of this piece I can find. Outstanding!

Thank you for posting this lovely performance on an Estonia Piano! We are still making beautiful hand crafted pianos in Tallinn, Estonia :)

The performance is full of whimsy and joie de vivre, but with a deep vein of wistfullness as well. Bella Davidovich is a marvellous interpreter of Chopin ...

It isn't a music! It's a poetry! Amazing interpretation! ❤

In around 1990 I had a ticket for a recital in Chicago, I believe Ivan Moravec, all Chopin; but to my disappointment, the scheduled performer had cancelled and somebody I never heard of was substituting-- Bella Davidovich. "Rip-off!!" I thought to myself as I opened the program, wondering why I shouldn't be entitled to a refund; how dare they substitute some random person. That recital, which culminated with the Chopin F-Minor Fantasy followed by the F-Minor Ballade, became the standard by which I judge all other Chopin performances. Rubinstein is sort of like that, and he is, well, Rubinstein (nobody can top him in the Heroic Polonaise, though; as someone who I never heard say a false comment about music/musicians put it: "Rubinstein owns the A-flat Polonaise"); much as I love Rubinstein, his interpretations are almost "too normal," they seem sanitized of any quirk or hint of madness, tragedy, or the spiritual sublime: they're all beautiful, true to the score, 100% authoritative, easily digestible; perfect to learn from. Davidovich though is in genuine communion with Chopin and plays like she's wrestling with Chopin's own demons. I feel like her soul and Chopin's are on the same page. Rubinstein had the soul of an epicurean, and his playing is epicurean: a refined pleasure. Davidovich's playing is a kind of quest seemingly indifferent to surface; but where beauty comes as a by-product.

One of the great pianists. I heard her debut in Carnegie Hall --She played the Chopin Preludes Has a perfect technique and is an expressive pianist--vast repertoir

Totally FANTASTIC. I´ve nerver heard anything like it. Perfection!

Incredible performance. Wit and charm, a surface levity pointing to something so much deeper, as Chopin often does in his “lighter” moments. Every waltz of course is a story about love, courtship, grace, and physicality but something deeper in the soul. Ms. Davidovich gets them all here, *incomparably*. The best. We love you Bella! I first saw you substituting for Ivan Moravec in Chicago, and it was probably the most memorable concert I attended. It included Ballade #4 and Fantasie op. 49. I’ll never, EVER, forget it, and those performances will always be my conception of those masterpieces in their ideal form- I’d say the “standard” all others are compared against, but I just don’t compare and rank music that way. Yours are just my concept of how these pieces SHOULD be played, and I’m confident Chopin would concur. I’ve since heard every major classic recording of the Ballade, studied much Chopin, as amateur, myself, and read the extensively, including most of Charles Rosen’s discussions, the Cambridge Companion, and a good assortment of Polish, Russian, and Hungarian (Liszt Academy) academic Chopin discussion in translation. I can appreciate French Chopin, btw, but I think the best understanding of Chopin is in Eastern and Central Europe. (To be honest, I think Richter, however much I admire him, doesn’t really “get” Chopin, nor Argerich, nor most Russians- it’s almost impossible, yet the Polish pianists frequently do so routinely. Because they approach it more as poetry than anything else, and poetry they understand and identify with. Bella Davidovich, from Baku Azerbajan, is in this company.

This is so unreal! Amazing!

Счастье слушать молодую и гениальную Беллу Давидовидович!ОГРОМНАЯ БЛАГОДАРНОСТЬ!

This is the best Chopin I can remember hearing!

Thanks for posting this. This is the version when I first listened to this work back in my junior high. I did not know who the pianist was. After 15 years I finally find out! Full of great memories~

Thank you for posting. She is amazing. What a magnificent Chopin interpreter!

This is really lovely to me. My late father was a classical pianist, and his interpretation is very close to this one. The dynamics and power, while still being fairly whimsical and upbeat, bring back some good memories. Thanks for posting this.

This recording of her is even better than the one that you can hear on streaming services

шарм эпохи Шопена так легко чувствуется в чудесном и гениальном исполнении обожаемого мной мастера фортепианной игры,спасибо Вам

I LOVE BELLA DAVIDOVICH AND CHOPIN!!!

Bravo!! I did not know this beautiful interpretation, thank you so much for share this piece of art with us...

Wonderful! A feast for eyes and ears.

Happy Birthday Bella, 94 years.

This is an absolutely excellent version!!

Happy 🎂 birthday Bella. You are a wonderful musician. ❤️

Unbelievably elegant

This remarkable lady is not operating an instrument, she's using the piano as her voice - the keys are as much part of her as her own vocal cords. Brava!

Speechless.

Superbe! Merci d'ecouter aussi l'immense Magda Tagliaferro et notamment l'hommage du 08/04/14 sur France Musique! Vous aurez le bonheur de l'entendre parler et surtout jouer.Un enchantement! Chantal Ely

Lovely from beginning to end.

Maravilhosa! Adorei a interpretação dela

Wow! Beautiful! Thank you for posting!

BRAVISSIMA❗️💐 СПАСИБО❗️🙏🏻❤️🤗

Thank you for this nice performance. Bella let here the piano sing.

So gracefull

¡estupendo!🎉 la forma de tocar es muy buena.😉

Wonderful !!!

And she did all this playing in a regular ol' chair!

wonderful!

Beautiful!

This brings so much joy to me. Finally feel like I can relate to Chopins waltzes. Before it was like Ballads, nocturnes-yes, waltzes-although genius-no thanks. Still scared of mazurkas though.

Russians really knew their way around a piano 🎹

Абсолютно гениально!❤

Absolutely wonderful. And very interesting to see the old Estonia piano. By far the finest pianos made in the Soviet Union (which maybe isn't much of a compliment because most of the pianos that were made there were total garbage). But Estonia were top notch.

gifted. well balanced. no! she is goddess of piano.

Bravo

I will never forget the time she came to Montclair, and she could not reach the piano keys. They sent the wrong chair. She preferred one with a back to it. So we had to run and find a big phone book for her to sit on. As I ran back into the auditorium, the reviewer leaned over and asked me - was it Essex or Passaic.

Very nice

Great pianist at full power piano. Antologic record !!!

Holy crap look at that left hand go

"Ach du lieber, mein schatz"! Zdravo & Kako si!! I was really hoping you Bella were Croatian! My dad's side of my family were pure Croatian. Love that gnocchi!!! Man who losses key to girl's apartment gets NO "gnocchi"!!!

I saw her live! Amazing. Beautiful tone. Gorgeous interpretation with sensitive rubato. If she had bigger hands she could've been a major star.

WHAT YEAR WAS IT IN ?

한국인은 아무도 없나요 ㅠㅠ

is this a hard piece to play?

Рояль звучит плохо, конечно. Без тембра, плоско, гремит... Но играет хорошо

huge lack of emotion ... dare I say? virtuosity yes, no doubt ... but ...