Rarities of Piano Music 2011: Live recordings from
the Husum Festival
Edvard GRIEG (1843-1907)
Modersorg Op.52 No.1 (1864-68) [3:29]
Alf HURUM (1882-1972)
Miniature Op.5 No.2 (1912) [1:59]
Sverre BERGH (1915-1980)
Norwegian Dance No.2 [2:09]
Jean SIBELIUS (1865-1957)
Impromptu Op.5 No.5 (1893) [3:22]
Håvard Gimse(piano)
Louis VIERNE (1870-1937)
Nocturne Op.35 No.3 (1928) [7:00]
Gaspar CASSADÓ (1897-1966)
Habanera, from 4 Spanish Pieces (1920s-30s) [2:57]
Artur Pizarro(piano)
Anatoly ALEXANDROV (1888-1982)
Nocturne Op.3 No.1 (1919 version) [5:25]
Konstantin EIGES (1875-1950)
Skazka Op.12 No.2 [2:11]
Jonathan Powell (piano)
Leonid SABANEYEV (1881-1968)
Prelude Op.10 No.5 [2:17]
Bert KAEMFERT (1923-1980)- Frédéric MEINDERS
(b. 1946)
Strangers in the Night [4:37]
Marc-André Hamelin (piano)
York BOWEN (1884-1961)
Sonata No.6 in B flat minor Op.160: 1. Moderato e serioso (1961) [7:44]
Prelude in B flat minor Op.102 No.22 (1950) [1:12]
Danny Driver(piano)
Boris TCHAIKOVSKY (1925-1996)
Sonatina (1946) [3:37]
Olga Solovieva(piano)
John FIELD (1782-1837)
Nocturne No.8 in E minor (H.46) (1821) [2:54]
Robert SCHUMANN (1810-1856)
Variations on a Nocturne by Chopin (1834) completed Joachim Draheim [4:01]
Piers Lane (piano)
Hans von BÜLOW (1830-1894)- Franz LISZT (1811-1886)
Dante’s Sonnet (1865, arr Liszt, 1874) [6:16]
Hans von BÜLOW (1830-1894)
Intermezzo scherzoso (Il Carnevale di Milano) Op.21 No.9 [1:14]
Nadejda Vlaeva(piano)
Riccardo PICK-MANGIAGALLI (1882-1949)
La Danse d’Olaf Op.33 No.2 [3:30]
Roland Pöntinen(piano)
Sergei RACHMANINOV (1873-1943)- Earl WILD (1915-2010)
O, Cease Thy Singing Op.4 No.4 [4:12]
Otto SCHULHOFF (1889-1958)
Valse viennoise Op.22 [2:58]
Daniel Berman (piano)
DANACORD DACOCD719 [74:43]
2011 marked the quarter-century of performances from this splendid and much-admired
festival near the North Sea coast of Schleswig-Holstein. As befits the significance
of the celebration, frequent performer Marc-André Hamelin performed
in the larger Congress Centre, and a celebratory 232 page book was launched.
So, all in all, it was something of a good year for Husum.
As always, the 75-minute CD that documents some of the performances contains
a wealth of rare and exciting items for the questing pianophile. Håvard
Gimse brings a quartet of Nordic gems starting with Grieg’s potent little
Modersorg Op.52 No.1 with its deep melancholy and Lisztian asides.
Alf Hurum was a delightful new find for me, one whose Miniature has
a taut folkloric quality whilst Sverre Bergh’s Norwegian Dance
cleverly evokes the Hardanger fiddle. Sibelius’s early Impromptu
is very attractive with its rich cascades of notes, but you’d be hard
pressed to tell it was Sibelius.
Each pianist brings something new, something unusual to the mix. Artur Pizarro
plays Vierne’s Nocturne, possibly written in 1928, though it
could date from a decade earlier, and the earlier date might make more sense
given its indebtedness to Debussy and affinity with Fauré. He also
plays cellist Gaspar Cassadó’s Habanera from the Four
Spanish Pieces. AnatolyAlexandrov’s Scriabin-inclining Nocturne
is played by Jonathan Powellas is Konstantin Eiges’s Skazka,
which is very freely lyric and not really like Medtner’s pieces of the
same name. I’ll leave you to read of the genesis of Strangers in
the Night, played by Hamelin, in a summit conjunction of Bert Kaempfert
and arranger Frédéric Meinders. Meanwhile we hear the opening
movement of York Bowen’s last sonata - I assume Danny Driver played
the whole thing at Husum - a richly romantic piece, as well as the same composer’s
Prelude in B flat minor which is an especially exciting affair. Olga Solovieva
contributes the driving Prokofiev-like Sonatina of Boris Tchaikovsky.
Piers Lane contrasts the limpid poetry of John Field’s Nocturne
in E minor with Schumann’s Variations on a Nocturne by Chopin,
completed by Joachim Draheim. Nadejda Vlaeva, whose disc of Bach piano transcriptions
by French composers for Hyperion I hugely enjoyed, plays two pieces by Hans
von Bülow. Dante’s Sonnet, in Liszt’s arrangement,
is refined and elegant, and the Intermezzo scherzoso is fast and droll.
This last element is picked up in programming terms by Pick-Mangiagalli’s
La Danse d’Olaf (played by Roland Pöntinen) with its will
o’ the wisp element. Finally Daniel Berman plays hyphenated Rachmaninoff-Wild,
in honour of Earl Wild, at whose memorial concert Berman played, and the droll
Valse viennoise from the pen of the celebrated accompanist Otto Schulhof.
Doubtless 2012’s edition is hatching as we speak. When a series digs
out such interesting fare and goes to the trouble of commissioning well-researched
booklet notes, you know you are in the safest of hands.
Jonathan Woolf
| 1987/88 | 2 003 | 2004 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 |
A wealth of rare and exciting items for the questing pianophile.
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