Moye Chen (piano)
Four Worlds
Sergei RACHMANINOV (1873-1943)
Polka de V.R. (1911) [4:22]
Morceaux de fantasie 3 – Melodie, Op 3 No 3 (1892 rev.1940) [4:15]
Morceaux de fantasie 5 – Serenade, Op 3 No 5 (1892) [3:26]
Morceuax de salon 5 – Humoresque, Op 10 No 5 (1893-4) [3:57]
Sergei RACHMANINOV
Sonata No 2 in B-flat minor, Op 36 (1913/1931 rev. 1943, arr. Vladimir Horowitz)
Vladimir HOROWITZ
Danse excentrique (c.1921) [2:41]
Valse in F minor [2:20]
Percy GRAINGER (1882-1961)
Irish Tune from County Derry [3:45]
Colonial song (1913) [6:15]
Ramble on love after Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier (1920-27) [6:24]
In Dahomey – cakewalk smasher (1903-9) [4:17]
George GERSHWIN (1898-1937)
Love walked in (1930, arr. Grainger) [3:49]
Georges BIZET (1838-1875)
L'Arlesienne Suite No 1 – Menuet (1872/1900, arr. Rachmaninov) [3:07]
John Philip SOUSA (1854-1932)
The Stars and Stripes forever (1896/1945, arr. Horowitz) [4:13]
rec. 2018, Foellinger Great Hall, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, Illinois
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 4817037 [77:03]
Beijing-born Moye Chen has been an award winner in several major competitions around the world – indeed I note that his performance of Grainger's Ramble on Love at the 11th Sydney International Piano Competition is included in the new 11-CD anthology of the competition (Decca Eloquence 4819497). The four worlds of the title presumably refer to the composers represented, Grainger, Rachmaninov and Horowitz, as well as Chen himself though it could equally apply to Australia, America, Russia and China, homelands, native and adopted of those same musicians.
With the exception of the second Sonata by Rachmaninov, played here in the edition prepared by Vladimir Horowitz, Chen's programme is something of an encore album – indeed three items here also appear on Kenneth Hamilton's entertaining Romantic Piano Encores CD (Prima Facie PFCD160). These short works ably represent the three composers writing in the golden age of the piano; There is Rachmaninov with the early Morceaux, written in his teens. The famous prelude is not included but there is the glorious Melodie, the humorously gruff and lilting serenade and the humoresque, teasingly bouncing between opposing harmonies. There are also a couple of his transcriptions; Chen opens proceedings with the devilishly difficult Polka de V.R – the V.R. here standing for Vassily Rachmaninov, Sergei's father and from whom he picked up this piece as a young man. Rachmaninov may have been known as “the Six Foot Six scowl” but transcriptions like this and the lilting Bizet Menuet transcription provide ample evidence that he had a well-developed sense of humour. Grainger too is shown in the role of both composer and arranger. His Colonial song, the first of four planned Sentimentals, has a wonderfully broad sense of sentimental fervour, opening with a quiet but passionate melody and rising to stratospheric heights of unabashed passion; well, perhaps just a little abashed - this was the only one of the four actually published during his lifetime owing to his sensitivity to suggestions of over-sentimentality in his music. Moye Chen judges the mood of this piece marvellously, bringing out the richness of the melody and giving it his all in the climaxes with a passion that would have surely have wrung approval from Grainger. Of his arrangements Chen chooses the tender and ever popular Irish Tune from County Derry – I will probably never get out of the habit of calling this Danny Boy – and the wonderful Rosenkavalier transcription, Ramble on love, as perfect a tone-poem for the piano as I can imagine with Grainger employing the capabilities of all three piano pedals to take every advantage of the colours available from the instrument. A relative rarity here is In Dahomey with its fabulous sub-title Cakewalk Smasher; this highly virtuosic work, not published until 1987, is based on the music of Will Marion Cook (1869-1944), written for his 1903 show In Dahomey, and trombonist Arthur Pryce whose slide effects inspired the many glissandi that fill the piece. Moye Chen takes the demands of this piece in his stride and matches the other versions I have on my shelves (Marc-André Hamelin on Hyperion CDA66884 and Piers Lane on Danacord DACOCD479 review).
I imagine the biggest rarity here is the slight but engagingly nostalgic Valse in F minor by Vladimir Horowitz, a piece that he only committed to reproducing roll (for Duo-Art in 1928) and as far as I know only otherwise recorded in recent times by Valery Kuleshov on his Hommage a Horowitz recital (BIS CD-1188). His Danse excentrique is another enjoyable cakewalk though a little closer to Debussy's Golliwog's Cakewalk than Grainger's larger-than-life romp. Then there is his infamous Stars and Stripes arrangement with its incredible three hands effect – I can still clearly remember the moment I heard Horowitz's 1949 recording and gasping as the theme accompanied by piccolos appears. Again Moye Chen has this firmly under his fingers and like Horowitz he finds the delicacy and transparency of the instrumentation as successfully as its bold and brash confidence.
All Chen's gifts on display in this music are brought together in the final item on the disc. Rachmaninov wrote his Second Sonata in 1913 but felt that it was too lengthy and in 1931 produced a revised version, presumably having gradually worked on it as he played it in recital in the intervening years. Horowitz felt he had gone a little too far with the pruning, taking out some beautiful music and so prepared his own version in time for Rachmaninov's seventieth birthday (with the composer's approval). After playing
it in 1943 he does not appear to have returned to it until 1968 possibly because of Rachmaninov's death; Horowitz's 1968 performances can be found in Sony's mammoth (but incomplete) Live at Carnegie Hall box (Sony 8765484172) including the evening in November when a piano string broke in the second movement. Chen does not aim for Horowitz's fiery volubility but instead crafts a very nuanced performance with fireworks aplenty but also sensitively played and with well balanced layers of sound; the first movement accelerando back into the opening phrases near the start is one such example as is the way he builds up to the clangorous bells in the development section.
I like the idea of this programme and its execution is top notch. Chen has a coruscating technique with a keen sense of sound and rubato as the two Grainger transcriptions on Gershwin and Richard Strauss show – I don't think I have ever enjoyed Grainger's version of Love walked in so much. I very much want to hear more from this artist.
Rob Challinor
