When this recording came on the radio in my car, I pulled over so there was no chance—not a mote of possibility—that I would miss the end. It turned out to be the Argentine piano queen Martha Argerich playing Chopin's Polonaise No. 6 in A-Flat Major, Op. 53 "Heroic".
There's plenty to say about the song. A Polonaise ("Polish") a kind of a waltz or slow dance on amphetamines. This version was recorded in 1965. I mostly knew Chopin for his cerebral, wandering, fluttering nocturnes and preludes. Martha's very talented, still shreds, and is v cool and famously reclusive. In this version, she plays so loudly that the microphone "peaks", pushed beyond its natural limit in receiving sound to distortion.
Despite myriad mistakes in the live version, her panache touches the entire keyboard (literally) and delivers a lethal dose of hardcore human emotion: the melancholy of a lovely memory... the complete abandon of having a great time... the syrupy illogic of love and sex... the sick delirium of power... our propensity for pomposity and the sheer DELIGHT of experiencing it all.
But there's nothing more worth saying, lest it slow you down in getting to the music.
Here she is, as one commenter pointed out, smiling over a particular passage in the Polonaise. Listen to Martha :)
love,
Alex