Your first reaction
might be ‘Piano music by Rossini? Surely
just opera transcriptions’? You couldn’t
be more wrong. Considering Rossini’s
famous wit, one should be suspicious
of anything called a "nothing"
(although in this case, "trifle"
might be a better translation). The
work that is most likely to come to
mind as you finish listening to this
disk is the impromptus of Schubert
— another wry joke, extremely sophisticated
compositions tossed off as "impromptu".
And is that "...Oh fricane!!!"
a pun on ‘africaine’? Why not?
Of course the work
that will have come to mind immediately
upon your beginning to listen to the
disk will be Respighi’s Boutique
Fantasque, for here is the raw material
from which he fashioned that work, and
also Benjamin Britten - his Soirées
and Matinées Musicales.
But don’t expect this disk to be a piano
version of these orchestral works —
these originals are a space removed.
It is as though the orchestral works
were re-composed for piano by Webern,
for what we have is a sobering minimalism
of expression. By comparison, the orchestral
works, which heard by themselves seem
transparent and economical, will, after
one hears the original, sound fat and
over-elaborated.
I hope I have intrigued
you, but the enigmas of style are only
reflective of many enigmas which surround
these works. Much has been said of Rossini’s
startling retirement from the opera
stage at the height of his powers and
popularity, but it seems that that is
no mystery at all; severe illness cut
him down and left him imprisoned in
disability for twenty years. Fortunately
he was by then more than financially
secure, so his prison was a comfortable
one. When at last he felt well enough
to see people socially and compose again
the fashion of the popular stage had
so changed he could hardly recognise
it. So, he struck out in a perpendicular
direction with these "Sins of Old
Age" searching to find an expression
for the brilliant ideas in his mind.
In the end, he left them as he found
them, collections of fragments hinting
at a great deal, but with an aura of
being unfinished. It is no wonder that
Respighi and Britten were inspired to
carry them further.
One thing is very clear
to me with no facts to base it on: the
young Shostakovich knew these works
very well, and they inspired him directly
to compose his 24 Preludes and
formed the basis for his piano composition
style. After many years of reading critical
ruminations on his works the aged Shostakovich,
in his last Symphony, finally
introduced us to two of his most notable
and previously all but unacknowledged
sources: Wagner and Rossini. How could
anyone have missed something so obvious?
The same way most critics don’t hear
William Tell in Liszt’s Les
Preludes, the same critics who don’t
see Pierrot Lunaire in the Act
One finale to Italiana. Rossini
stands nearer the source of our modern
music than we realise and it’s time
we all became aware of that.
The piano is uncredited,
but it doesn’t sound like a modern instrument
to me, more like an Erard, the authentic
piano of the period. In which case the
piano technician deserves great credit
for bringing such fine sound out of
an older instrument. The pianist, who
specialises in out-of-the-way repertoire,
does a superb job of capturing the irony,
humour and volatility of mood in these
pieces. I would like to hear him play
Gottschalk. I also want to hear all
the other entries in this series.
This disk is a must-have
for anyone who seriously admires Rossini
or Shostakovich or Respighi, or ...
Satie!
Paul Shoemaker