Malagueña
Antonio VIVALDI (1678-1741)
Concerto in G minor, Op.8 RV315; The Four Seasons: Presto: ‘Summer’
transcribed by Konstantin Vilensky [2:41]
Ernesto LECUONA (1896-1963)
Suite Andalucia: Malagueña [3:39]
Darius MILHAUD (1892-1974)
Scaramouche: Brazileira [2:30]
Dave BRUBECK (1920-2012)
Blue Rondo à la Turk [6:33]
Pablo ZIEGLER (b.1944)
Asfalto [5:23]
Manuel de FALLA (1876-1946)
El Amor brujo, transcribed by Celius Dougherty: i. Pantomima [4:15]: ii Ritual
Fire Dance, [3:59]
William BALCOM (b.1938)
Recuerdo: i. Paseo [3:36]: ii Choro [3:37]
Percy GRAINGER (1882-1961)
Fantasy on George Gershwin’s ‘Porgy and Bess’ [19:17]
Witold LUTOSŁAWSKI (1913-1994)
Variations on a theme of Paganini (1941) [5:36]
Duo Granat (Tamara Granat and Daniel Propper (pianos))
rec. August 2011, Concert Hall of the Artur Rubinstein Philharmonic in Łódź
DUX 0860 [62:48]
This is largely a light-hearted twentieth-century two-piano recital. The only
exception, in respect of the time period, is Konstantin Vilensky’s transcription
of the presto (storm) movement of Summer from The Four Seasons
with which the disc gets underway. This is a suitably vivacious start and
introduces one in dramatic form to Tamara Granat and Daniel Propper of the
Duo Granat. There have been one or two piano transcriptions of the whole of
The Four Seasons of late on disc, and this one has the advantage of
the sonic mass generated by the two instruments.
The piece that gives its title to the disc was composed by Ernesto Lecuona
and it’s but one of the many dance or dance stylisations that pepper
the programme. Flamenco is inherent in the Malagueña and in the driving,
dancing animation the Duo asserts another of its selection principles, which
is ‘hotness’, or the kind of galvanizing emotional state that
can be generated by this two piano pairing. That’s certainly why this
is followed by a similar, though somewhat less overheated opus, Milhaud’s
Braziliera from Scaramouche, a sure-fire crowd pleaser. This
was authentically written for the piano duo team, in this case the elite duo
of Marguerite Long and Marcelle Meyer.
Rhythmic exotica is at the heart of Dave Brubeck’s Blue Rondo à
la Turk where jazz impulse meets Balkan time signatures. It’s timely
here to remember Brubeck’s experiments and playing with gratitude. Pablo
Ziegler’s was pianist in Astor Piazzolla’s band. Regular readers
will know that, for me, a little Nuevo tango goes a long way but Asfalto
is a usefully combative example of the genre. Celius Dougherty has arranged
two movements from Fallas’s El Amor brujo for the two piano team
very effectively, whereas William Bolcom’s Recuerdos - in a useful
biographical connection Bolcom was a Milhaud student - carries dedications
to Gottschalk and to Nazareth. Both evoke Latin American music, and are not
untouched by unease.
The longest work is Percy Grainger’s large-scale Fantasy on George
Gershwin’s ‘Porgy and Bess’ which serves up the succulent
melodies with great brio in this performance. Finally, and in complete contradistinction
to Grainger’s extensive salute, we have Lutosławski’s Variations
on a theme of Paganini written in the dark days of 1941 when he and Andrzej
Panufnik were working as a piano duo in Warsaw cafés. It’s more
of a harmonically elaborated transcription than a series of variations but
in its spicy chromaticisms and sublimated jazz moments, it packs a sizeable
punch.
Well recorded, and enthusiastically annotated, this disc will provide enjoyment
and also amusement along the way.
Jonathan Woolf
Enjoyment and amusement along the way.
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