This two CD set arrives from a rather unexpected quarter, a new
company called First Hand Records. If this is a marker, and if
it reflects the general level of comprehensiveness and commitment,
then I think we can expect some good things from them because
this is a really first class contribution to Cherkassky on disc.
This
is doubly the case since, to celebrate the centenary of the
pianist’s birth in 2009, First Hand has had access to the
stereo tapes of Cherkassky’s EMI sessions in 1956 and 1958,
not the issued monos. These experimental stereos therefore
make their first appearance in a coup well worth celebrating.
There are also alternative takes, of the third Chopin Ballade
and the Gershwin Preludes. In addition a significant number
of performances are making their first ever CD appearance.
These are reason enough on their own to consider the set essential
listening even before we get to the performances themselves,
which are imbued with so powerful a sense of drama that listening
has been, and continues to be, a charismatic pleasure.
The
Bach-Busoni Chaconne is enriched with colour and expression,
rather more strictly rhythmic than some may have anticipated
but without Michelangeli’s chilly hauteur and command. Cherkassy’s
more personalised romanticism finds a powerful ally in Busoni,
and the performance registers as both selfless and also richly
voiced. There are two Chopin Ballades and they offer inspiring
playing, richly textured and keeping us on our toes, cutting
off pedal (in the A flat major) and responding, occasionally
impishly, to the rhythmic dictates of the music. His Chopin
is always alive and invigorating, the D flat major Nocturne
dreamily reflective without being indulgent.
His
Liszt has bravura control, whilst the Saint-Saëns-Godowsky The Swan has kaleidoscopic
colouristic eloquence, its voicings beautifully profuse and
persuasive. The Liadov is a Golden Age performance, redolent
of the pianistic lions of the past, of whom Cherkassky was
one. The Rachmaninoff Preludes offer a contrast. The G minor
is played with grand seigniorial authority, control of texture,
dynamism and sporting a languorously romantic B section. The
B flat major meanwhile is curiously unconvincing and perhaps
needed more rehearsal time. This weakness is really an isolated
event in the set, with the possible exception of some of the
playing in the Gershwin which, for all its technical aplomb,
is a stylistic mismatch. The Chasins meanwhile is full of
brilliantly insouciant control but can also cut expressively
deep as well - in the first of the three There’s also the
glittering Litolff Scherzo with the BBC Orchestra and Malcolm
Sargent - not the more familiar and later taping with Adrian
Boult.
Some
of these performances are available on Testament (SBT1033)
but obviously in mono. The stereos are good, and capture Cherkassky’s
tone well. The alternative tapes are valuable, rewarding and
important. Notes are helpful and well written. Really, as
I said earlier, this is a most impressive issue with quality
transfers to match. High standards are set here.
Jonathan Woolf
