Rarities of Piano Music at Schloss vor Husum - 2010
Carl Phillip Emanuel BACH (1714-1788)
Sonata in E minor Wq 59 No.1 H281 (1784) [6:51]
Marc-André Hamelin (piano)
Stephen HELLER (1813-1888)
4 Freischütz Studies – Nos 1 and 3 Op.127 (1871) [7:48]
Jean-Frédéric Neuburger (piano)
Richard WAGNER (1813-1883)
Flower Maidens’ Scene and Finale from Parsifal – transcribed by Zoltán Kocsis
(b.1952) [14:52]
Ian Fountain (piano)
Ferruccio BUSONI (1866-1924)
Prelude in E flat minor Op.37 No.14 (K.181) [4:18]
Michail Lifits (piano)
6 Elegies K249 – No.2 All’Italia! (1907) [7:22]
Giovanni Bellucci (piano)
Boris PASTERNAK (1890-1960)
2 preludes (1906) [5:49]
Eldar Nebolsin (piano)
Sonata in B minor (1909) [13:45]
Hiroaki Takenouchi (piano)
Jřrgen BENTZON (1897-1951)
Variations on a theme of Chopin Op.1 (1921) [11:23]
Peter Froundjian (piano)
Robert HELPS (1928-2001)
Hommage ŕ Fauré, from 3 Hommages No.1 (1972) [4:20]
Jenny Lin (piano)
rec. August 2010, at Schloss vor Husum
DANACORD DACOCD 709 [77:18]
We expect ingenious programmes from this long running series and we are never
disappointed. This one ranges over the centuries, alighting on the unexpected,
the overlooked, the ignored and the wholly improbable.
But the programme begins with C.P.E. Bach and indeed it is arranged intelligently
to allow one to appreciate the nature of the music’s trajectory whilst also,
of course, allowing the listener to assert one’s perfect right to ignore it
entirely and instead focus on one’s own particular area of interest. But when
it’s pointed out that the Bach sonata is played by Marc-André Hamelin, one
might wish to stay for the party, because his perky, droll playing perfectly
matches C.P.E. Bach’s perky and quixotic writing. The pecky articulation here
enlivens things enormously, and so too does the free fantasia kind of writing
that Bach is employing. The finale is greatly engaging and the droll Haydnesque
throwaway ending a real treat. The audience even goes so far as to titter.
Jean-Frédéric Neuburger plays two of the four Freischütz Studies
of Stephen Heller. There’s a deal of tempestuous writing here, drama and refined
legato too, and the Weberian ethos transfers perfectly to the purely pianistic
medium. There then follows a significant addition to the repertory by a contemporary
pianist in the shape of Zoltán Kocsis’ transcription of the Flower Maidens’
Scene and Finale from Parsifal. Textures here are filled out and Kocsis had
added a vocal line toward the end. It’s a formidable piece of work, and let’s
see how many of his colleagues take it on. One who has is Ian Fountain who
plays it splendidly. Michail Lifits performs Busoni’s Prelude in E flat minor
whilst the composer’s second Elegie, All’Italia! receives an equally
authoritative reading from Giovanni Bellucci. We find the extensive Variations
on a theme of Chopin Op.1 written in 1921 by the 24 year old Jřrgen Bentzon.
It’s based on one of the Mazurkas and is made up of nine variations; plenty
of contrasts, sometimes stark contrasts. It’s a most interesting piece for
an opus 1 — quite complex in places. There’s homage of sorts from Robert Helps,
whose Hommage ŕ Fauré, from 3 Hommages dates from 1972.
It’s delicate and rather lovely, well worth hearing. I note that the rest
of Jenny Lin’s programme consisted of works by Miaskovsky, Feinberg and Kaprálová.
That’s seriously good programming. Are we ever going to hear it?
Finally there’s the case of Boris Pasternak. The Boris Pasternak
of Dr. Zhivago fame. His family was cultured and musical—his mother
had been a concert pianist and a student of Anton Rubinstein and Leschetitzky—and
he entered the Moscow Conservatoire, only to leave in 1910 to study philosophy.
When he was 16 he wrote two charming Preludes, saturated in the influence
of Scriabin whose portrait his father, a famous painter, had made. Three years
later he wrote a Sonata in B minor. Like a number of Scriabin’s later sonatas
it’s in one movement, quite complex, free, harmonically questing, replete
with sepulchral moments and Rachmaninovian bell tolls. It’s quite impressive.
Next we’ll hear that H.G. Wells wrote a symphony.
As ever given that the pianistic net is cast wide, there should be something
for pianophiles in this latest volume.
Jonathan Woolf
As ever given that the pianistic net is cast wide, there should be something
for pianophiles in this latest volume.
see also review by John France