Malcuzynski died
in 1977 but it seems longer ago. He was one of the more glamorous
and popular artists on the circuit but he doesn’t seem to have
fostered much posthumous enthusiasm even from the serried ranks
of pianophiles. Certainly reissues continue to appear but there’s
been nothing that has really sought to get to grips with his
legacy in a comprehensive way.
Guild has thought to conjoin the Chopin Second
and Rachmaninov Third Concertos. It’s not a bad move as far
as programming is concerned. The Chopin is a good performance
made better still by virtue of Kletzki’s truly first class accompaniment.
This is not some prosaic skeleton or apologetic collaboration
– on the contrary. Kletzki generates some marvellously effective
and assertive orchestral marshalling; fine colours, taut rhythms,
sympathetic control in the slow movement. The tuttis in the
first movement are cut. Malcuzynski’s playing is cultured if
not quite the final word in delicacy. Unfortunately the issue
is blighted by transfer problems. Firstly it is over-processed
and consequently opaque. Maybe you could do what Mortimer Frank
is always suggesting in another critical forum and re-equalise
(if you can). But you’d still have to contend with a couple
of first movement side-joins that really won’t do and with which
you can do nothing. The second of them, at 6:05-6:08, is a real
dog’s dinner. Pearl 0095 is noisier but better in this respect
– though the companion works are entirely different; more Chopin,
Szymanowski and Liszt’s Second Concerto.
In respect of side joins the Rachmaninov
is better though it still suffers from noise reduction that
blunts the frequencies. To my ears this should be a much more
open sound and given that the Rachmaninov was recorded in 1949
there’s absolutely no reason why it shouldn’t be. The performance
seems to have divided auditors down the years. Some have found
it too fast and frivolous, others have found it “overbearing”
whilst adherents admire its fluency, virtuosity and intense
drama. As with the Chopin – where he was partnered by Susskind
in the stereo era – the pianist set down other performances;
among them a Warsaw traversal with Rowicki in 1964 and a live
Mitropoulos from 1956. I happen to enjoy this Kletzki-conducted
performance. The first movement is very fast but the cadenza
is finely controlled and the virtuoso and expressive demands
of the concerto seem to me to be well accommodated – and notably
well balanced. Certainly few could deny Malcuzynski’s driving
eloquence in even the thorniest passages.
So a rather unbalanced disc. The performances
are generally very recommendable as examples of Malcuzynski’s
immediate post-war way with both concertos. Any soloistic limitations
are compensated for by conductorial excellence in the Chopin;
the driving tension of the Rachmaninov is deepened by the pianist’s
probing romantic affiliations in the slow movement. I just wish
the transfers were better.
Jonathan Woolf
Witold
Malcuzynski (piano)
