Aldo Ciccolini made a series of finely recorded recitals for
Cascavelle in the period between 2002 and 2004. This collection
of six CDs contains the works of three composers; Schumann,
Chopin and Grieg. It’s invariably a lopsided box, given that
half the contents is given over to Grieg’s lovely Lyric Pieces,
two to Chopin’s Nocturnes and one to Schumann. But if your interest
is in the pianist, I daresay you won’t be swayed by such a consideration,
especially if you’ve not come across the performances before.
Ciccolini has a lovely, warm touch and he’s a natural for Chopin,
but he’s an inconsistent one on the basis of his performances
of the Nocturnes. Time and again he makes the most gorgeous
sounds, his articulation ranging from feathery insinuation to
powerful extroversion. But the effect is undone too often by
too measured and horizontal a response. His rubati too can cloud
the direction of the music, as in the case of Op.9/2. And despite
the humorous turns of phrase, and the almost coquettish appeal
of Op.9/3 once again his sense of the music’s direction is imperfectly
realised. This is notably the case in his unconvincing traversal
of Op.27/2. His C minor Op.48/1 is curiously passionless, and
Op.72/1 sounds like he’s going through the motions. The C sharp
minor, op. posth, however, is very much better. Indeed a number
of the Nocturnes are decidedly attractive, marrying tonal beauty
with a better sense of line than he displays elsewhere.
His Schumann focuses on just three works. Faschingsschwank
aus Wien is a punchy realisation, even at points pugnacious
in its drama. But the performance succeeds by virtue of its
vivacity even whilst stinting in some digital detailing. Waldszenen
is not so good. Next to Kempff or Richter, Ciccolini reverts
to the extrovert thrust that sometimes bedevils Faschingsschwank
and the result is a reading that’s rather prosaic and externalised.
Much better is the big Grande sonata in F minor (Concert
sans orchestre), where he marries daredevil drive with the
kind of passionate intensity that sometimes eludes him in the
Chopin Nocturnes. This is a big, boned, no-nonsense and very
persuasive account indeed.
Which leaves us with Grieg’s Lyric Pieces - all ten volumes
of them. This in itself is valuable, because traversals of the
whole set are not exactly common. And Ciccolini plays them with
great imagination and insight and with once more a beautiful,
fully round, warm tone. Doubtless one could quibble in the detailing.
I happen to find The Lonely Wanderer (Op .43, Volume
III) rather hard, admirably direct, it’s true, but tonally and
textually too brash. And his Feuille d’album is rather
overt and lacking in a touch of sympathy – so too Papillon,
the first of the set. In fact I’m a bit disappointed by his
Op.43 in general. Maybe too he could be more startlingly crystalline
in Ruisselet, where the brook is certainly more intoxicating
in Katya Apekisheva’s performance on Quartz. Nor would I trade
Gilels’s famous recording, where in something like the Op.38
Berceuse we find the acme of imagination. Nevertheless
there is a huge amount to admire in Ciccolini’s performances
and I’ve only really concentrated on pieces with which I was
less happy. Given that the Lyric Pieces occupy three CDs one
can tell how admirable Ciccolini’s performances are as a whole.
These discs have been released individually in the past, but
this boxed set cements them handily.
Jonathan Woolf
Track-listing
CD 1 [72:19]
Robert SCHUMANN (1810-1856)
Faschingsschwank aus Wien, Op. 26 (1839-40) [21:30]
Waldszenen, Op. 82 (1848-49) [21:34]
Grande sonata in F minor (Concert sans orchestre), Op. 14 (1835-36)
[28:15]
CD 2 [52:18]
Fryderyk CHOPIN (1810-1849)
Nocturnes Nos. 1-10 [52:18]
CD 3 [61:49]
Nocturnes 11-21 [61:49]
CD 4 [61:25]
Edvard GRIEG (1843-1907)
Lyric Pieces I (8), Op. 12 (1867) [11:17]
Lyric Pieces II (8), Op. 38 (1883) [17:37]
Lyric Pieces III (6), Op. 43 (1886) [13:26]
Lyric Pieces IV (7), Op. 47 (1887) [18:09]
CD 5 [62:35]
Lyric Pieces V (6), Op. 54 (1891) [22:24]
Lyric Pieces VI (6), Op. 57 (1893) [25:10]
Lyric Pieces VII (6), Op. 62 (1895) [14:53]
CD 6 [59:06]
Lyric Pieces VIII (6), Op. 65 (1896) [21:24]
Lyric Pieces IX (6), Op. 68 (1899) [16:23]
Lyric Pieces X (7), Op. 71 (1901) [20:14]
Aldo Ciccolini (piano) 
