Another excellent disc from the consistently superb
Anthony Goldstone. This is the second and last volume in his survey
of transcriptions and paraphrases of Tchaikovsky’s music - this
time focusing on his ballet scores (see
review
of Volume 1). I am a great admirer of Goldstone’s art. Aside from
the technical skill to perform these hugely demanding scores he displays
real musical sympathy with the inherent style of this music and more
importantly still an ability to communicate that sympathy both in the
playing of the notes and the insight and interest of the programme notes
he supplies.
As I have mentioned before, I have a great affection for the whole genre
of the keyboard transcription - the more improbable and outrageously
demanding the better. The two paraphrases offered here are excellent
examples of this; familiar melodies adorned in pianistic writing of
staggering complexity and virtuosic demand. Others I am sure will feel
that this can strain a ‘simple’ melody to its breaking point
but I hear a sheer delight and joy in the creation of such works - a
kind of ornate baroque splendour - that dazzles as it delights. Certainly
this is the case in both Paul Pabst’s
Concert Paraphrase
on
The Sleeping Beauty and even more so in Percy Grainger’s
(relatively well-known)
Paraphrase on Waltz of the Flowers from The
Nutcracker. Both works have the great good sense not to outstay
their welcome - more than seven minutes does tend to induce jaw-drop-syndrome
in even the most enthusiastic of listeners. These were conceived by
their composers as vehicles in the concert hall to display their own
mighty talents. Suffice to say Goldstone merits being in the company
of such technically renowned player/composers. Pabst was yet another
pupil of Liszt and an important professor at the Moscow Conservatory
laying the foundations of the Russian Piano School that continued on
into the 20
th century. His work as a composer is now all
but forgotten. His paraphrase which opens the disc exhibits a real skill
at compressing many of the motifs and melodies of the full ballet into
a seven minute firework display. Aside from the obvious notes-per-minute
virtuosity I admire Goldstone’s ability to lead the listener’s
ear with careful inner voicing so that the main melodies do not drown
in the sheer weight of the accompaniment. Likewise, and I mentioned
this before in another review, Goldstone has the precious knack of choosing
wholly appropriate tempi - throughout this disc the music feels ‘right’
- full of life for sure but not gabbled or hasty.
This quality is especially apparent in the complete Act III of
Sleeping
Beauty (the so-called
Aurora’s Wedding) presented in
the transcription - rather than arrangement - by Alexander Siloti. Siloti
was a close and respected collaborator of Tchaikovsky. Goldstone in
his ever-illuminating and informative liner quotes the composer; “apart
from Taneyev and you I have no one I can trust.” Yet posterity
has been less kind to Siloti; if he is remembered at all it is as the
editor of the now discredited butchered version of Tchaikovsky’s
Second Piano Concerto. However, with this edition of the complete
Sleeping
Beauty he did a very skilled job indeed. Important though to note
that this - and the selection from
Swan Lake that closes the
disc - is a transcription rather than an arrangement let alone a virtuoso
paraphrase. Although the liner does not say as much, the function of
this edition is purely practical - a way of allowing Tchaikovsky’s
music to be heard away from the theatre pit. One assumes that in the
case of scores such as this, this is the version which ballet répétiteurs
use in the rehearsal room to this day. That being the case it is no
surprise that Siloti presents the score “as is” with little
or no adornment or elaboration. The skill is the sense of how little
of one of Tchaikovsky’s largest and most instrumentally complex
scores is missing. Again Goldstone is superbly adept at subtly highlighting
musical lines with a wonderfully varied tonal palette and carefully
graduated voicings. He is able to find the expressive range from the
grandly ceremonial passages of the closing
Sarabande and
Apotheosis
through to the miniature delights of the Fairy-tale character dances.
I have to say I vastly prefer Goldstone’s pacing in comparison
to the recent complete score offered by Neeme Järvi on Chandos
who is all bluster and bombast. The
only problem is that it is
hard not to crave the full orchestral sonority. Admirers of Goldstone
or collectors of unusual piano repertoire can purchase with confidence;
anyone seeking the music of the ballet really ought to hear the full
score as originally conceived.
As mentioned previously, Percy Grainger’s paraphrase is another
delight - the musical equivalent of eating a box of chocolates at a
single sitting - a guilty pleasure. The thundering opening seems to
encapsulate exactly the kind of musical gesture one expects of a keyboard
titan. This work appeared on one of the very first CD’s I ever
bought played by Geoffrey Saba titled “Great Piano transcriptions”.
No surprise Michael Ponti - doyen of the virtuoso transcription - recorded
it on a pair of discs “Operatic Piano” although in current
company Ponti sounds laboured and disjointed. Saba is the wildest, most
overtly dramatic of the three and I must admit to having a tremendous
fondness for his heart-on-sleeve approach. Goldstone feels a touch staid
in comparison but the trade-off is a greater sense of control and clarity
of line. I suspect that Grainger might prefer the former while admiring
the skill of the latter.
The Nikolai Kashkin transcription of
Swan Lake fulfils exactly
the same function as Siloti’s of
Sleeping Beauty. Here
we are given a twelve minute excerpt of the Act I
Pas de trois.
As before the skill of transcriber and performer are never in doubt
- shorn of its orchestral garb one can but marvel all over again at
the sheer richness of Tchaikovsky’s melodic inspiration. An excellent
conclusion to this compellingly enjoyable disc.
The rest of the “package” - liner-notes, recording and general
presentation are first class. The piano sound as recorded is bright
and full, detailed but not oppressively so. The Lincolnshire Church
is Goldstone’s preferred solo recording venue and as before in
this series he retains the playright of the disc and no producer is
named so one imagines this is very much a self-managed project.
A disc of real quality and one bound to give great pleasure to all -
guilty or otherwise.
Nick Barnard
