The Russian (Tatar)
composer Sofia Gubaïdulina is probably best appreciated
for her searing and searching symphonic music. Her
St
John Passion and
Canticle of the Sun leave one
shellshocked by their austerity and by a kind of barren
passion. It's the acute spareness, and ravishing attachment
to her vision of the sacred, with Muslim and Slavonic roots,
that inspire. So what to expect from her solo piano music?
She initially studied piano at the Kazan Conservatory and
admits to regarding the instrument as a source of fun and
experimentation from her childhood; then she and her sister
would, presumably, improvise. Gubaïdulina remains an accomplished
pianist.
Musical Toys is a collection for
children. Miniatures redolent of Bartók's
Mikrokosmos,
they evoke a surprisingly wide field of emotions, thoughts
and possibilities. No piece is longer than two and a half
minutes; the shortest is timed at just 31 seconds. But
these are no fragments. It's to the great credit of Argentinean
pianist, Marcela Roggeri, that Gubaïdulina's pleasing
and almost effortless integrity and vision remain with
the listener long after hearing the 14 pieces from beginning
to end: deeply satisfying. The movements contain the perhaps
inevitable musical onomatopoeia of birds' beaks, bells,
drum-rolls and the like. These are never intrusive; Roggeri
approaches them quite unselfconsciously and in such a way
that they add to our appreciation of the intended musical
development. Just what's wanted.
The Sonata, although written in
1965, was not published for almost ten years. In this work
it is again sound that interests Gubaïdulina.
The piano is 'prepared' and its natural structure as a
physical instrument - the resonances of the sound-board,
for example - are exploited. It's violent music. Its impact
is also made by contrasts between tension and relaxation.
In some ways the control of chaos - admirably accomplished
by Roggeri - is akin to the large-scale unwinding and corralling
of musical ideas in a work like the
Offertorium violin
concerto.
There is a Bach-like
quality to many of the pieces on this disc: the
Chaconne,
Invention and
Musical
Toys: Magic Roundabout [trs.1, 20, 3] in particular. But Bach in the way that Shostakovich
knew him. The counterpoint, contrast and forward movement
in his
24 Preludes for Piano are present here.
Musical Toys: The Drummer [tr.14],
for example, could almost be extracted from that work.
In the
Chaconne, one of Gubaïdulina's earliest acknowledged
works, she not only nods in the direction of another arranger
of Bach, Busoni, but also consciously looks to the sonorities
of the organ. In the
Musical Toys collection,
from six years later, there are also influences of jazz,
Bartók
and Prokoviev amongst others: there is both dissonance
and a tonal centre.
Toccata-Troncata and
Invention also
display disparate influences … Bach again,
ostinato techniques
and an attention to the acoustics of the piano. Again,
Roggeri is on top form. Her playing is trenchant yet full
of feeling. Quite an achievement and one that only comes
from a mixture of confidence and familiarity with the idiom
and dedication to and fondness for the composer. These
Roggeri has in abundance.
Diana Baker has a complete
piano works (on Stradivarius 33756) in which she too is
more than up to the demands of the same works - particularly
the Sonata. But the playing of Roggeri on this cleanly-recorded
(live) Transart CD has everything of subtlety, poise, detachment
and above all a gracious interpretative thoughtfulness
that make this
the recording to go for. Her playing
is both commanding and inquisitive: the way she seems to
be hearing the highly challenging
Allegro of the
Sonata [tr.16] for the first time, for example, brings
out its freshness and spontaneity; yet her reading never
misses a beat.
This CD, then, contains
a great repository of somewhat unusual yet very compelling
music. One can hardly listen to it without reassessing
one's appreciation of Sofia
Gubaïdulina. That reassessment - thanks to the perception
of Marcela Roggeri - is
going to lead to a wider and deeper one.
There is more variety
in the concentrated and charged piano music of Sofia Gubaïdulina
than you might expect. Its insistence, caustic emotion
and tidiness mixed with external musical associations need
a perceptive pianist. Marcela Roggeri is such a one.
Mark Sealey
Marcela
Roggeri (piano) 
