There is some mighty impressive playing in volume two of Barbara
Nissman’s Rachmaninoff series from Pierian. A formidably
equipped player she has both the technical and tonal chops for
this unforgiving repertoire, and proves to have a comprehensively
successful take on the music, excelling in both the Op.33 and
the Op.39 sets.
Her sense of evocation is paramount in establishing the tenor
of these performances. Her musical instincts veer away from
too imposed a series of rubati. She refuses to colour or to
pedal too extravagantly either so you will not hear a wash of
virtuosity. Instead you will just hear virtuosity. As indeed
you will hear true musical acuity. Her rubati in the C major
Op.33 Etudes-tableaux are, therefore, far less extreme than
those of Horowitz in his live Washington DC 1967 performance,
to take one august comparison. But this is not in any way to
imply a metrical and inflexible approach to rhythm, rather to
state that her narratives - and her sense of musical narrative
is strong - are not derailed by extraneous matters. Similarly
her voicings in the E flat minor of the same set are powerful,
not least those incursive left hand voicings, and here the stormy
blast and saturnine torrent of the music are equally strongly
conveyed.
If one turns to the composer in, say, the A minor of the Op.39
set one does hear an awesome accumulation of tension, a grand
use of dynamics and a sense of engulfing dynamism. Nissman however
is powerful and propulsive in her own way - and consistently
so throughout both sets, which is one of the greatest virtues
of her performance. I don’t sense any slaking or slackening
of enthusiasm for any of these Etudes-tableaux on her part.
She adds three encores. There’s a frisky bumble bee, a
warmly argued Kreisler Liebesleid and an ardent Vocalise in
the Earl Wild transcription.
Pierian make a point of noting that no compression was used
in the recording so that one needs to listen at a higher than
normal dynamic level; in other words, turn up the volume. It
works well and the colouristic range is wide and handsome, befitting
these fine performances.
Jonathan Woolf
Barbara Nissman (piano) 
