Piano professor records catalogue for bicentennial of Chopin’s birth

To celebrate the bicentennial of Frederic Chopin’s birth, acclaimed pianist and Jacobs School of Music professor Edward Auer is recording a catalogue of Chopin’s complete works.

“Chopin Nocturnes Vol. 1,” the first CD in the catalogue, will be released in early November. Between now and 2010, Auer will record between seven and nine CDs featuring works such as Chopin’s mazurkas and sonatas.

“My original intent was to release all the CDs together,” Auer said. “But when working on all of Chopin’s pieces, I began to feel like there were some I could do a better job on. So later I decided to put them out in volumes. Just as the first CD is coming out, I’m making the second CD.”

Auer, a leading interpreter of Chopin’s works, was the first American to win a prize in the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw, Poland, said Alexander Doan, publicist and IU senior.

“Chopin is some of the world’s greatest music, along with Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert and so on,” Auer said. “But Chopin was the first one who was able to fully realize the possibilities of the instrument. He figured out how to write more gratefully for the piano than anybody had before and as well as anybody has since.”

Along with help from his wife Junghwa Moon Auer, Edward Auer is recording his catalogue from home.

“Equipment was more bulky and expensive before,” Edward Auer said. “Nowadays, the only truly massive expense is to have fine piano. We got a bunch of state of the art recording equipment and our living room is acoustically agreeable, so we can do our work from home. Recording is quite exhausting. It’s nice to take a break and have your own house around you.”

When Edward Auer is recording, Junghwa Moon Auer takes on the responsibilities of a producer by listening to his music through headphones and identifying instances they need to rerecord, she said. But while working from home is nice, it does present new challenges.

“Producer Max Wilcox encouraged us to get plywood to cover the carpet and to buy panels to cover the windows to make it more like a recording studio and less like a living room,” Junghwa Moon Auer said. “Large trees surround our house though, so during the day there are lots of woodpeckers, which are not helpful when we’re trying to record. Even a little bit of noise is not welcome.”

Edward Auer said he hopes to satisfy Chopin enthusiasts with his collection.

“Record buyers have an urge for completion,” Edward Auer said. “If you are playing a lot of music from the same composer, you’ll want a whole set of whatever it is. I’ve recorded Chopin before, so with 2010 coming up, it seems like a good time to record as many of his other works as I can.”