The Chilean pianist Claudio Arrau (1903-1991) was one
of the last surviving depositories of 19th century tradition
if only because his teacher, Martin Krause, was a pupil of Liszt and
indeed described the young Arrau as the greatest piano talent since
Liszt. He gave his debut recital in Berlin in 1914 followed a year later
by a Dresden performance of Liszt's second concerto under Nikisch. His
American debut in 1923 was a disaster and it took until his Carnegie
Hall recital in 1940 to make good the damage. He was a man of wide interests
with both intellectual resource (Cardus said that Arrau has his intellect
in his fingers) and philosophical curiosity, who did his best not to
specialise in his choice of repertoire. He was a supreme recording artist,
(and not all musicians are) with his legacy scattered widely across
the 78rpm era to LPs, forever exploring the Beethoven sonatas or embarking
on yet further Olympian accounts of the great heavyweight concertos.
Chopin, however, was a favourite and regularly found a place in his
programmes. The solo piano music here appeared as a collection of six
CDs ten years ago (Philips 432 303-2), the seventh now added being the
two concertos recorded back in 1970 to make a 15 year-span for the whole
set.
One must always bear in mind when surveying all of
a great composer's works in a particular genre that it is rather unhelpful
as far as chronology and creative development are concerned (and neither
is to be lightly dismissed) to have them all lumped together. One easily
loses sight of the fact that, in this particular case, Chopin did not
write all his Impromptus in one outburst of creativity, neither his
Nocturnes nor his Preludes (and a lot else besides which is not part
of this set, such as the sonata, the Mazurkas etc). They are all mixed
up together, but its perhaps asking too much to have them presented
in the order in which they were composed. Whatever the work under discussion,
Arrau, with his very personalised and over-calculated rubato, is nevertheless
a master of subtle nuance and inner conviction, even though it may not
be to everyones taste. He draws nobility as well as rich colours from
Chopin's fine melodies, he is a master of balance, with the left hand
never abandoned to the melodic superiority of the right, and he brings
a distinctive personality to all this solo piano music. The concertos
in particular are full of aristocratic poise and match the lustre of
an on-form London Philharmonic Orchestra, magical horn sounds in the
first, sublime bassoon solos in the second, its phrasing in the tuttis
sensitively guided by Inbal. This is piano playing of the finest calibre
from one of the most universally acclaimed pianists of the last century.
Christopher Fifield
Claudio Arrau (piano)