Twelfth Night Recital
Johann Sebastian BACH (1685-1750)
Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue, BWV903 [13:59]
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART (1756-1791)
Piano Sonata No.13 in B flat, K 333 (315c) [22:13]
Ludwig van BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)
Piano Sonata No.14 in c sharp minor, Op.27/2, ‘Quasi una fantasia’ (Moonlight)
[17:31]
Fryderyk CHOPIN (1810-1849)
Mazurka in c sharp minor, Op.50/3 [5:30]
Nocturne in F sharp, Op.15/2 [4:06]
Nocturne in D flat, Op.27/2 [6:44]
Ballade No. 4 in f minor, Op.52 [12:03]
Mazurka in c sharp minor, Op.63/3 [2:07]
Claude DEBUSSY (1862-1918)
Suite bergamasque: Clair de lune [6:03]
Ivan Moravec (piano)
rec. live Dvořák Hall of the Rudolfinum, Prague, 6 January 1987. DDD.
SUPRAPHON SU4190-2 [53:43 + 36:34]
This album, recorded live at the Prague Twelfth Night
festivities in 1987, was due to have been released to celebrate veteran
Czech pianist Ivan Moravec’s 85th birthday. Instead it has
become his memorial: he died on 27 July 2015. His discography, mostly
on Supraphon, is considerable, but this recital has lain in the vaults
until now, perhaps because his own strict self-censorship passed it
only a short time prior to his death.
The main appeal will be to Moravec’s own considerable fan base. For
my part I enjoyed it but found it something of a curate’s egg. The
opening Bach work emerges from his hands as a beautiful piece of music
but doesn’t sound particularly Bach-like: at times you might almost
think you were listening to sensitive playing of Chopin or Debussy,
composers whom he recorded many times, for Vox as well as for Supraphon,
and to whose music he seems much more naturally attuned.
His 1965 recording of the Chopin Nocturnes, originally made for the
Connoisseur Society (SU4097-2, 2 CDs) was aptly described by Brian Reinhart
as the stuff of legend. I’m no Chopin expert but the two Nocturnes
recorded here receive such beautiful performances that I intend to listen
to that complete set.
The other Chopin works here are also so beautifully rendered as to make
it clear why this rather modest pianist is considered one of the great
Chopin interpreters. If the two Mazurkas here pique your interest,
as they did mine, there are three more Mazurka performances from him
on SU4059-2, coupled with the four Scherzos and two Etudes.
With a beautifully evocative Clair de Lune to round off the recital,
it’s the Chopin and Debussy on the second CD that particularly appealed
to me.
The Mozart sonata, however, also seems natural grist to Moravec’s mill.
His recordings of several of the Mozart piano concertos, with the Academy
of St Martin-in-the Fields and Neville Marriner, have been recommended
for the beauty of Moravec’s playing and that beauty is much in evidence
here in Sonata No.13. I don’t think it tells the whole story – one
performance could probably never do that – but he emphasises the elegance
of this work without ever slipping into the Meissen figurine type of
Mozart playing. Again, I intend to explore Moravec further, this time
in the Mozart concertos: Nos. 20, 23-25 with Marriner (Hänssler 94.603
or, less expensively, Piano Classics PCLD0008); Nos. 20 and 23 with
Marriner (Hänssler 98.142 – download only); Nos. 24 and 25 with Marriner
(Hänssler 98.955, download only); Nos. 14, 23 and 25 with Josef Vlach (Supraphon SU3809-2).
Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata also receives a very delicate and
evocative performance – arguably even more suited to this quasi una
fantasia than Moravec’s playing in the Mozart. With recitals such
as this there isn’t much point in making comparisons with other recordings
of individual works but I’m sure that such a comparison would place
this Moonlight high on anyone’s shopping list. With recordings
of Für Elise and Bagatelle No.4 (VAI VAIA1096) and the Pastoral
Sonata (SU4004-2) to his credit, it’s the lighter side of Beethoven’s
temperament that seems to have been especially suited to Moravec.
The one composer with whom I associate Ivan Moravec who is not included
here is Dvořák. Fortunately the lack is easily remedied in the
form of a budget-price Supraphon 3-CD set of his concertos and other
works which includes his recording of the Piano Concerto alongside the
Violin Concerto and Romance (Josef Suk) and the two Cello Concertos
and Silent Woods (Miloš Sadló) with the Czech Philharmonic, with
Jiří Bělohlávek and Vacláv Neumann at the helm (SU3965-2, around
£16 but currently on offer from Presto
for £10.56).
The recording, which I heard as streamed from Qobuz,
sounds by no means the worse for having lain metaphorically in the vaults
for so long. It can be downloaded there in lossless sound for £11.99,
just over half what you might expect to pay for the CDs, but the download
comes without the booklet. That means that I’ve had to tot up the track
lengths to list the timings for complete works and for the two CDs above,
so I can’t guarantee them with my life, though they add up to the total
playing time of 90:17 which Amazon state.
If you dislike applause, I should warn that there is a good deal of
it on this recording. Other than that I cannot imagine anyone being
other than enthralled, especially by the performances on the second
CD.
Brian Wilson
Previous review:
Stephen Greenbank (Recording of the Month)
