Felicja Blumental was
born in Warsaw in 1908. A composition
student of Szymanowski she studied the
piano with two eminent musicians – Joseph
Goldberg and pedagogue Zbigniew Drzewiecki,
who also taught the much younger British
pianist Joyce Hatto. She lived in Brazil
for a number of years before a European
return in 1954 and made something of
a reputation as a specialist in out
of the way early nineteenth century
music (Clementi, Field, Hummel and Kozeluch
amongst others, much of which she recorded).
She died in 1991.
Her Chopin, given her
distinguished lineage, is impressive.
The Scherzi are buoyant and alertly
musical, athletic but sensitive. Her
pianism is notably well balanced, there
are no unseemly rubati though the playing
can be dramatically engaging when the
music requires it. In the B minor for
example she is scrupulous in maintaining
a flowing tempo and not slowing for
contrastive passages, eschewing overly
demonstrative gestures and remaining
cogent and well scaled (pity about the
split penultimate chord). The B flat
minor – indeed all four Scherzi – are
entirely consonant with her playing
of the B minor. The left hand crescendi
are precisely graded and controlled,
the crescendo itself perfectly timed
– and absolutely no forcing through
the tone. This is not, lest I by omission
imply it, merely "pretty"
Chopin playing, decorative and tidy;
it’s frequently compelling and quite
free of artifice and superficiality.
The Concerto in F minor
has rather a hobbling studio acoustic
– very spacious but dry. The strings
therefore have both a sense of spatial
distance and also of glassiness, which
is not always very attractive. But Blumental
adopts a splendid equilibrium between
self-assertion and simplicity. Careful
not to over-romanticise, hers is a strong,
directional and sensitive account with
highpoints in the Larghetto where her
affecting little pauses and idiomatic
pointing after the ascending and descending
runs are winning features. Subtle ones,
too, frequently elided or ignored by
others. One gets the impression listening
to her Chopin of a musician of integrity
and experience and a genuine thoughtfulness.
Given the relative
age of the recordings and the rather
subfusc sound of the Concerto I hope
reader won’t be dissuaded from considering
Blumental’s Chopin; she has qualities
that mark her out as a player of distinction.
I shall be reviewing a couple more of
her Brana re-releases soon and many
of the qualities I admire in her Chopin
are present in those as well. This is
a most worthwhile retrieval and a salute
to a musician of significant stature.
Jonathan Woolf
Felicja Blumental (piano) 