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Rarities of Piano Music at Schloss vor Husum from the 2021 Festival
rec. live, 13-21 August 2021, Schloss vor Husum, Denmark
DANACORD RECORDS DACOCD939 [69]

Despite the best efforts of festival founder Peter Froundjian and his team the worldwide pandemic proved too much for the 2020 festival and an attempted replacement mini-festival in May 2021. By early 2021 however it was clear that plans for the August festival could go ahead, albeit in somewhat altered circumstances; Jeremy Nicholas presented his talk Godowsky and me via video link from his home and, as audience numbers were reduced to half, each performer gave their hour-long recitals, minus interval, twice to avoid disappointing the numbers of people who flocked to attend. It is wonderful that this already well established and well loved festival has battled through and that Danacord can once again bring us this gift of highlights from last year’s event.

Rarities are certainly the order of the day and husband and wife Duo of Ludmilla Berlinskaya and Arthur Ancelle who gave the final concert kick off proceedings here with four delightful miniatures from Reynaldo Hahn and Russian jazz composer Alexander Tsfasman. The first of the two valses from Hahn's La ruban dénoue, the ribbon unties, has a popular song feel with its sequence of descending seventh chords while the second is more traditionally French sounding, its lilt and gently unfolding melody so redolent of the Belle Époque, also the title of the duo's collection of French music that they recorded in 2018 and on which one can hear all twelve Valses (Melodiya 1002563 review). Their most recent disc (Melodiya 1002564) features the music of Gershwin and Tsfasman and it is wonderful to hear two excerpts from Tsfasman's Jazz suite, the lyrical waltz valse, more viennese than jazz and the toccata-like career; I had the latter as my ringtone for a while but it drove my wife crazy and the big tune in the middle is still something of an earworm. Tsfasman had an excellent pianistic pedigree having studied with Felix Blumenfeld but like Nikolai Kapustin his talents guided him in the direction of jazz and he wrote a large amount of music in that genre including two piano concertos and this suite, originally for piano and orchestra. His music has appeared on a previous disc (Danacord DACOCD779 review, review), a solo fantasy in that instance.

I had not heard the Meditation from the Romance sans paroles by Chaminade but was immediately taken with its beautifully simple melody whose harmony moves slowly beneath it; its Gallic yearning and tranquil ending are quite touching. The sublime performance by Callaghan is a large part of the pleasure and he continues this in the second romance of the six entitled Elevation, an elegantly flowing barcarolle, with its passionate climaxes and soprano/baritone duet. Callaghan has recorded the music of Josef Holbrooke and he played the fifth of Holbrooke's eight nocturnes as an encore. All the nocturnes have titles and this one is Bridal Ballad, a hangover from its origin as part of a work inspired by Edgar Allen Poe's poem about a newly married woman who fears the disapproval of her dead husband's spirit, gothic drama that is not apparent in this slow waltz with its glorious Chopinesque cantilena. The nocturnes have now been recorded at least twice whereas Callaghan's two-piano duo partner Hiroaki Takenouchi unearthed an even rarer work, the second barcarolle by Percy Sherwood whose second piano concerto he recorded several years ago (Dutton CDLX7287). Sherwood was born in Dresden to an English teacher and a German singer and studied with Theodor Kirchner and Felix Draeseke; he went on to teach, counting Dora Pejačević amongst his students. His barcarolle is a wonderfully atmospheric piece lying somewhere between Chopin and Fauré. The melody of the outer section with its left hand arpeggio accompaniment is contrasted with a more impassioned central section and the extended work – nearly 10 minutes – has a wonderfully delicate ending. I hope that Takenouchi can be persuaded to record some of Sherwood's solo music if there is more of this quality.

Florian Noack is a pianist from Brussels and one whose exceptional technique and elegance at the keyboard never fails to impress me. At Husum he played his own startling transcription of Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade as well as Josef Suk's cycle Things lived and dreamt from which we hear two movements. First is the dance-like sixth marked with an expression of quiet, carefree gaiety and the flitting figurations and halting rhythms sound like someone dancing unselfconsciously to music in their head. The poco andante marking of the ninth, whispering and mysteriously, belies its gentle but scherzo like nature and its gossamer figuration is effortlessly handled by Noack. Schubert is perhaps an odd choice for a rarities recital but his Mélodie hongroise, an encore by Nicolas Stavy, is perhaps better known as the opening of the final movement of the Divertissement a la Hongroise for piano duet; it works perfectly in its solo piano version.

Liszt wrote four valse oubliées but it is the first that has always caught pianists' attention so it is nice to be reminded of the vivacious second by Zlata Chochieva who captures its sharp contrasts of virtuosic exuberance and enigmatic lyricism marvellously. She is equally commanding in three relative rarities by Rachmaninov. In the early F major Prelude one can hear the emergence of his endless melody and its idiomatic writing would make it a worthy recital companion to a selection of the mature preludes. Two barcarolles are amongst Rachmaninov's early works; one in the op.10 set of morceau and the gorgeous opening movement of the first suite for two pianos and the brief morceau de fantaisie from 1899 is another luxurious example in all but name. The Oriental sketch is more familiar and suggests the études-tableaux in its virtuosity and descriptive nature. Chochieva delivers all these with sumptuous tone and enviable control. The disc closes with two items from the festival's founder peter Froundjian. He starts with a lovely performance of Issay Dobrowen's Jugend-Sonate that sits stylistically between Rachmaninov, Medtner and Bortkiewicz. Dobrowen is better known as a conductor but was a pianist first, studying with Konstantin Igumnov who numbered Maria Grinberg, Bella Davidovich. Lev Oborin and Ryszard Bakst amongst his many pupils. Dobrowen composed up until his early thirties, mainly piano and chamber works but there exists a piano concerto (recorded on Simax PSC1246 alongside some solo piano works including this sonata) and Russian songs for baritone and orchestra that I would love to hear. I hope someone records more of his piano music as it deserves a bigger audience. The recital closes with the contemplative nocturne that is the eighth of Rued Langgaard's Gitanjali-Hymner entitled the sea of silence. The collection of Gitanjali-Hymner was inspired by the poetry of Bengali poet, novelist and composer Rabindranath Tagore, specifically his song offerings or Gitanjali written between 1904 and 1910. The waters here are mostly calm, with a slow moving and fairly optimistic melody over a rocking arpeggio accompaniment though some darkness is hinted at toward the end, perhaps to portray the line Like a rain cloud of July hung low with its burden of unshed showers...

The festival has weathered its own burden and continues in its mission to unearth at least a few of the countless buried and forgotten treasures of the piano world, supported by such an able cast of pianists and an audience hungry for this repertoire. Danacord's annual releases are always at the top of my wish-list and this volume is a worthy and entertaining addition to this ever growing collection.

Rob Challinor

Previous review: John France

Contents

Reynaldo Hahn (1874-1947)
La ruban dénoue Nos 1 and 3 for two pianos (1915)
Alexander Tsfasman (1906-1971) arr. Igor Tsyganov (b.?)
Jazz Suite – movts. 2 and 4 for two pianos (c.1945)
Duo Berlinskaya (two pianos)
Cécile Chaminade (1857-1944)
Romances sans Paroles Op 76 Nos 6 and 2 (1894)
Josef Holbrooke (1878-1958)
Nocturne Op 121 No 5 Bridal Ballad (1937)
Simon Callaghan (piano)
Percy Sherwood (1866-1939)
Barcarole No 2 Op 24 (1915)
Hiroaki Takenouchi (piano)
Josef Suk (1874-1935)
Things lived and dreamt Op 30 Nos 6 and 9 (1909)
Florian Noack (piano)
Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Mélodie hongroise in B minor D.817
Nicholas Stavy (piano)
Franz Liszt (1811-1886)
Valse oubliée S.251 No 2 (1882)
Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943)
Prélude in F major (1891)
Moreau de fantaisie in G minor (1899)
Oriental sketch (1917)
Zlata Chochieva (piano)
Issay Dobrowen (1894-1953)
Jugend-Sonate Op 5b (1914/1926)
Rued Langgaard (1893-1952)
Gitanjali-Hymner No 8 The sea of silence (1929)
Peter Froundjian (piano)