If you are not compiling a chronological series of recordings,
and are instead working on programming a series of discrete
and attractively selected examples from a musician’s repertoire,
you sometimes have to work hard. If that’s been the case in
Naxos’s case I haven’t noticed, because each disc has a very
cogent recital look, whether concentrating on a single composer
or linking things thematically or in other ways. This preamble
applies generally, but also to this particular and latest example
of the Naxos Cortot series.
The introduction moves from Purcell to Bach, then we enter the
classical period with Mendelssohn, and take in pungent examples
of Franck’s Wagnerian inspiration before ending on an encore
note with Saint-Saëns. As I said then, this is an especially
satisfying programme, one that wears well on repeated listening
– should one wish to listen thus – and comes in at 75 minutes
on the clock.
Things begin with the Purcell arrangements made by A.M Henderson,
who was much given to making editions for wide dissemination
and popular success. Choirmaster at the University of Glasgow,
he’d studied the organ with Widor and the piano with Pugno and
Cortot, and it was to the latter that he dedicated his ‘Popular
Pieces for Piano’. These are not the most searching pieces ever
written, but Henderson’s aim in arranging them was practical
not scholarly, and they work well. Cortot plays them with a
lovely spring to the rhythm and with great simplicity and warmth,
but with no attempt at over-inflation. The Bach concerto performance
(after Vivaldi) is truly leonine and magnificent in its sonorous,
declamatory power. The central Sicilienne is equally persuasive,
whilst the Toccata finale is a splendid example of the pianist
at full throttle. It reminded me of the comment made to me by
a pianist friend who said that Cortot’s major slips came in
works he knew and performed often – because he didn’t practice
them assiduously – but when it came to things that might not
be so central to his repertoire he got down to serious practising
and slips were minimised. I don’t know if that is a widespread
conception but listening to this Bach-Vivaldi and to the Franck
pieces – magnificently played – it does bears a certain weight.
As for the two Franck pieces, there’s no doubting their superb
conception. His pedalling in the Prélude, choral et fugue is
marvellously controlled, whilst the sonority, and the timbral
weight remain limpid and light, the tempo forward-moving but
not insistent. The playing is of full intensity, and it’s beautifully
expressive in the Choral, accelerating into the Fugue with reserves
of energy and dynamism. It’s true that we can hear some textual
emendations – they’re mainly registral – but the conception
as a whole is marvellously compelling. His Mendelssohn Variations
Sérieuses is one of three recordings he left of it – the last
can be found on APR5573 – but this 1937 inscription is full
of brilliance and sensitivity. Meanwhile there is the scintillating
Saint-Saëns, playing of remarkable dexterity and élan.
Shellac noise has been retained throughout, and it’s a little
higher in the Prélude, Aria and Finale than in some other pieces,
but Cortot’s luminous tone emerges all the more clearly as a
result. I wish some other restoration companies would appreciate
that point. With Jonathan Summers producing a fine sleeve note
this is, as you can by now appreciate, a really splendid disc.
Jonathan Woolf
See also review by Dominy
Clements
Alfred Cortot (piano)
