The first two sides of the booklet that accompanies
this crowd-funded CD are given over entirely to acknowledgements and
thank-yous, with around a hundred names listed, most of whom helped
realise this project through kickstarter.com. The title of the disc,
'Empassioned', appears at first glance to be a typo: London-based pianist
Viktor Bijelovic (styled Bijelovic) is Serbian and could thus be forgiven
for not noticing. However, clarification from his agent confirms the
choice was deliberate, an obsolete form of 'impassioned' used to reflect
the "historical context of the music".
Nevertheless, it is the music and musicianship that really counts and
Bijelovic, in this, his second recording, has something to say - literally,
indeed. The opening track is a two-minute "narrated welcome by Viktor",
in which he briefly discusses the works and their composers, a gambit
which has not surprisingly gone down well with audiences in concert
halls. James Rhodes did this kind of thing recently on his awfully-titled
'Jimmy - Live in Brighton' album (Signum Classics SIGCD308). In some
ways Bijelovic's programme follows a similar path to Rhodes's, with
a full and contemporaneous Beethoven sonata, a Rachmaninov prelude,
a bit of Chopin and Liszt. Thankfully, though, Bijelovic does it without
need for an 'explicit lyrics' notice, keeping things polite and concise
for listeners who may have little desire to recreate a club scene in
their own living room.
In fact, Bijelovic is a little too concise - two minutes cannot really
do justice to the opening Beethoven sonata, let alone all the rest too.
As a result, his words are rather generalist - it would have been nice
to have a minute or two on each piece to allow Bijelovic to fully communicate
in words the feelings that come through in his playing. There are one
or two verbal errors that could have been ironed out at the same time
- for example, the correct pronunciation of Paul Verlaine's surname
(as in -enn, not a nasal -a sound) and a slip which turns the four-minute
Gluck/Sgambati Melodie ('Dance of the Blessed Spirits') into a transcription
of the whole Orfeo ed Euridice opera. Bijelovic has a surprisingly thespian
voice, although his delivery is ironically dispassionate.
His recital is fairly ideal for a new audience, mixing short and medium
pieces with one big work, all likely to have been heard before by, say,
a typical Classic FM listener. Conversely, most long-standing pianophiles
may well have umpteen versions of all of these pieces in their collections
and will likely be less inclined to enquire. Bijelovic takes things
at a reasonably leisurely pace, though he is not affectedly slow. This
restraint may seem to go against the intended spirit of the CD, but
Bijelovic is aware that passion is about more than speed and force,
as indeed he indicates in his spoken introduction.
In this regard it must be noted that the nickname 'Appassionata' was
not given to the F minor Sonata by Beethoven himself, but by a publisher
years after his death. Unfortunately, the name has stuck, even though
'Impassioned' is a title that could apply to any number of Beethoven's
works. As it happens, Bijelovic gives a relatively cool, neutral reading
of this masterpiece - always preferable to the liberties taken by certain
big-name virtuosos. Bijelovic's own cadenza for the famous Hungarian
Rhapsody no.2 of Liszt is witty, interesting and unostentatious, further
emphasising the former's disarming modesty at the keyboard.
Nonetheless, at some point Bijelovic will want to improve on all these
recordings, and would probably be the first to concede that there is
scope for betterment - that is the lot of all musicians. However, this
is a good, solid clutch of performances, offering evidence of a pianist
with the intelligence, elegance and technique to bring admirers not
only to his inevitable Facebook, Twitter and SoundCloud pages, but more
significantly to his recitals, where he can continue to engage with
audiences in a way that can only benefit the art. Though this music
is obviously for everyone, a good idea of the market Bijelovic is primarily
pitching at can be had from an easily found YouTube video, glamorous,
humorous and cheesy all at the same time, in which he performs an arrangement
of the so-called 'Arrival of the Queen of Sheba' whilst a group of yuppie
acquaintances play cards and quaff champagne!
The disc is well recorded. Besides all the acknowledgements, the booklet
provides a page of biography and another about the venture itself. Surprisingly,
for a project that hopes to reach out to new audiences "regardless of
how much or little prior knowledge they have about [the music]", there
is no information on any of the composers, without whom there would
of course be no music. Not even first names or birth and death dates
- the listener must Google and hope for the best.
Byzantion
Contact at artmusicreviews.co.uk
Masterwork Index:
Beethoven
Appassionata sonata
