Reinhold Glière is a composer whose music I am always
happy to seek out based on a personal and quite disproportionate
affection for his sprawling
Symphony No.3 Ilya Murometz.
An eighty minute plus orchestral epic is not necessarily the
best guide to the style of a collection of forty piano miniatures.
Although all the music presented here was written in the first
decade of the last century its stylistic heart, as with the bulk
of Glière’s music, looks back to an earlier age.
I should say right off that I enjoyed every aspect of this disc.
This is the first disc I have heard of Anthony Goldstone in solo
recital and it is clear from the very first bars that he is totally
at ease with both the technical aspect of this far from simple
music but more importantly the idiom of it too. For although
there is a clear “Russian-ness” to this music it
is - and I do not mean this disparagingly - more of the Salon
than the wind-swept Steppe. Several times I was reminded of Tchaikovsky’s
piano music which is still relatively unknown. Particularly in
the main work - the
25 Preludes Op.30 - the fairly undigested
influence of other great writers for solo piano is clear. So
track 2 -
Prelude in C minor - is the absolute cousin
(if not twin!) of the famous Chopin
Prelude Op.28 No.20 in
the same key. This was the Chopin prelude that Rachmaninoff used
in his own
Variations on a Theme of Chopin of 1902. Whether
this is a homage or a shameless ‘lift’ is unclear!
Now the objection that some have to Glière is that he
was some kind of musical/moral chancer but as Goldstone puts
it very neatly in his liner-note - “[he] ... became the
doyen - and one must say, the great survivor - of Russian music”.
Just look at his dates; born more than forty years before the
revolution he outlived Stalin. Pre-revolution this equates to
being a musical-magpie as in the compositions presented here.
Post-revolution the party line was toed with alacrity with inspirational
ballets -
The Red Poppy being the most famous by some
way - and easy on the ear, orchestrally colourful populist works.
As long as you are not looking to Glière to provide a
profound artistic commentary on Russia in the 20
th Century
you will get along just fine. His natural gift for melody and,
where appropriate, colourful orchestration, makes his music thoroughly
enjoyable. Which is why his symphonic music has done pretty well
on CD with multiple versions of
Ilya Murometz from
Stokowski onwards
and a
Chandos
series of the other orchestral works proving irresistible
to those partial to a good tune like myself. Certainly, the music
on this disc is easily enjoyable from the very first listen.
Yes, one is drawn inexorably into the ‘influenced-by’ game
but since this music does not start out with any great pretensions
somehow that matters very little.
Goldstone’s particular musical skill is the way in which
he pitches these performances so perfectly. For sure all of the
stormy drama of say
Prelude No.18 in G sharp minor is
played for all it is worth but at the same time Goldstone does
not overburden with music with ‘meaning’ it probably
does not merit. These are pieces that range in duration from
just 38 seconds to only 3:24 so they are not intended to be ‘big’ intellectual
paragraphs.
Prelude No.21 in B flat major shows the constituent
elements of this disc to good effect; Glière’s lyrically
passionate melody richly embroidered with complex passage work
is performed with all the ardour and technical accomplishment
one could wish for. This movement is a real winner - the second
longest piece on the disc at 3:11 - it does sound rather like
a piano transcription of a Glazunov
Pas de Deux! The recording,
which dates from 2002, suits the music well. Although recorded
in a church the acoustic presents the instrument in more of a
drawing-room environment. Goldstone plays on a Grotrian piano
which suits this performance very well - again I found myself
thinking that a grander sounding piano might well overwhelm the
music. Not that for a moment anyone should take from this any
sense of the piano sounding underpowered. Goldstone contributes
the informative and useful liner-note and he names this set of
preludes as the composer’s most important contribution
to the medium. Never having heard a note of his piano music before
this I’m in no position to judge but I would echo his comment
that it is; “… a most impressive work and it is astonishing
that it has languished overlooked for so long”. Referring
to my favourite free source for scores - IMSLP - I see that you
can
view these
works -
and for anyone interested in Russian romantic piano music I would
heartily recommend a look. The CD is completed by two sets of
shorter works. Both again have immediate charm and appeal although
personally I find the
3 Mazurkas Op.29 to be less individual
- now this would be a good blind listening disc, thoroughly enjoyable
but totally perplexing I would bet! The
12 Esquisses Op.47 Goldstone
speculates had a pedagogic function. Certainly these brief pieces
seem to focus on a single facet of playing and the texture is
considerably simpler than that of the preceding preludes.
He
suggests titles for the movements which seem apt both musically
and spiritually even if they are of his own rather than the composer’s
invention. Again, Goldstone is able to play with a simple sincerity
and beautifully unmannered phrasing that serves the music to
perfection.
This disc is part of a survey from Divine Art entitled ‘Russian
Piano Music Series’. Currently five volumes are listed
with two others also being performed by Anthony Goldstone. If
the music itself and musical and production values on the other
discs match the one under review here then this will prove to
be a most desirable series and one that I hope to hear more of.
Nick Barnard
Divine Art’s Russian Piano Music Series
Vol 1
Shostakovich
and Comrades DDA25080
Vol 2 Rebikov DDA25081
Vol 3 Glière DDA25083
Vol 4 Lyapunov DDA 25084
Vol 5 Arensky DDA25085
PS I wonder if Divine Art will extend the series to the Slovakian
composer Alexander Moyzes first issued on Olympia OCD (not Russian)
Anthony Goldstone (piano) 
