How does a talented young
musician get started in a world where talent alone is not enough?
In particular, how do you persuade the punters to part with full
price when there are plenty of established players out there whose
performances have been reissued at mid- or bargain-price, often
in recent DDD recordings?
A few attractive photographs
on the cover and in the magazines certainly helps and, if you
have two attractive young performers, include them both on the
cover and as often as possible inside the booklet – as EMI have
done recently with the Sabine Meyer-Julian Bliss CD of Krommer
and Spohr Concertos. If that doesn’t work, get your star to look
melancholy or deeply thoughtful, as if about to deliver the smouldering
performance of a lifetime: see Nicola Benedetti’s DGG CD of Vaughan
Williams and Tavener and Paul Lewis’s penultimate Harmonia Mundi
CD of Beethoven Sonatas, to name just two recent releases.
Naďve don’t feel the need
to sell, say, their Alessandrini CDs of Monteverdi Madrigals in
this way. They have, however, certainly managed to present David
Greilsammer on the cover of this CD as a handsome, deeply thoughtful
young man, the heir to a long tradition dating back at least to
Hilliard’s famous miniature. But they have done more to intrigue
the prospective purchaser. The lower-case title fantaisie_fantasme
tells us nothing about the composers included – perhaps it is
to be a CD of improvisation? Then there are the three attractive
young women of oriental appearance in the background: are they
some kind of backing group? Why are they in a huddle, with Greilsammer
turned away from them? Are they his fantasy? Does the fantaisie
involve the mystic East?
This probably attracts
and intrigues the browser enough to turn the CD over and look
at the table of contents. No backing group, alas, just plain
performances of a range of piano works with some variant of the
word ‘fantasy’ in the title or in the concept. A wide range,
too, from Bach to a piece recently commissioned by Greilsammer
from Jonathan Keren. The programme itself is a kind of fantasy,
a mirror image with the Mozart at its centre, the composers revisited
in the second half in the reverse of the order in which they were
first presented.
Certainly the idea of a
CD of piano music involving the concept of fantasy is very worthwhile
but is the present disc anything other than a gimmick? I have
to say at the outset that it doesn’t work for me to have composers
so diverse interspersed with one another: I’d very much prefer
an all-Bach or all-Brahms CD or to have the Keren pieces in the
company of other contemporary music. The label ‘fantasy’ doesn’t,
for me, connect these works any more than a recent Simax CD (PSC1269)
convinced me that I wanted to hear Beethoven’s Op.111 Sonata sandwiched
between two pieces by Arne Nordheim which had been inspired by
it. None of the more recent music here – even the Cage – perplexes
me in the way that the Nordheim did, but the programme does not,
for me, sit well as a whole.
Greilsammer’s inaugural
CD of early Mozart Piano Concertos (K175, K238 and K246, on Vanguard
ATMCD1789) was very well received in some quarters, so it is hardly
surprising that he has chosen to make the Mozart Fantasy the centre
point of this collection. Nor is it surprising that he plays
this piece extremely well: were he now to record an all-Mozart
CD, I am sure that it would be as well received as his disc of
the concertos. (Yes, I know the catalogue is full of excellent
versions of Mozart’s piano music and the anniversary year is over.)
Greilsammer’s note significantly emphasises the centrality of
Mozart : “My journey begins at the very heart of this core, with
Mozart’s Fantasy in C minor …” Perhaps the three dots indicate
unfinished business with Mozart; if so, I hope Naďve or some other
company allows him to complete that business.
The same qualities which
inform his Mozart – a cantabile delicacy of touch combined
with vigour where appropriate – is also evident in the Bach, though
the end of the Fugue is a little heavy and the separation of the
Fantasy (track 1) and the Fugue (track 16, the final track) partly
spoils my enjoyment. Yes, one could re-programme the tracks but
to do that every time one plays this CD would be a nuisance.
Regular readers will know
that I am no great fan of Bach on the piano but playing like this,
on a par with Glenn Gould or Angela Hewitt, is the best way to
do it if it must be done. Without wishing to endorse his prejudices,
Bach on the piano reminds me of Dr Johnson’s remark after attending
a Quaker meeting: “Sir, a woman preaching is like a dog walking
on his hind legs. It is not done well but you are surprised to
find it done at all.”
The Janaček Sonata,
though its two movements are presented in the right order, would
also be more effective played together: the damage here is less
apparent, but continuity is lost in the mirror-programming. Again,
an all-Janáček programme from Greilsammer would be welcome.
The Brahms Op.116 works
are less damaged by being separated. They, like the Bach and
Mozart, benefit from a lightness of touch which brings out the
fantasy elements very effectively.
The twentieth-century pieces,
too, can stand up to the separation which the programming brings:
these, too, are well played. As Greilsammer himself commissioned
the Keren work and gave its first performance as recently as June
2007, one may safely assume that he offers the ideal performance.
It is pleasant enough – certainly nothing too avant-garde
to scare the horses – and the first piece even makes a good transition
from the Bach to the Brahms, despite my remarks about the mixed
programme not working in general.
The notes in the booklet
contain plenty of information about the Keren pieces, about Keren
the composer and about David Greilsammer. Greilsammer’s two-page
note about how he assembled the programme tells us very little
about the pieces themselves. Why, for example, did Ligeti choose
the title Musica Ricercata for these piano pieces? They
certainly do not evoke the contrapuntal style of the ricercar,
as in Bach’s Musical Offering, though No.11 (not on this
CD) is an act of homage to Frescobaldi. No.6 presumably qualifies
for inclusion in a CD of fantasy because of the way in which its
jollity comes to an abrupt and unresolved end. No.8 is a dance-like
piece which again ends abruptly. The Ligeti pieces are the least
substantial music on this CD: I can understand why Ligeti himself
apparently had doubts about them.
The recording was made
in l’Heure bleue Salle de Musique at La Chaux-de-Fonds, advertised
in the booklet as “one of Europe’s finest music hall [sic] with
extraordinary acoustics.” The accompanying photograph of a piano
looking lost in a large auditorium suggests that the acoustic
is going to be resonant but, in the event, I was not aware of
any acoustic peculiarities – which is much more of a compliment
than it perhaps sounds.
I wouldn’t advise rushing
out to buy this CD but I would advise you to watch out for CDs
with more unified programmes from David Greilsammer, especially
if they include Mozart.
Brian
Wilson
David Greilsammer (piano) 
