Etude
Sergei LYAPUNOV (1859-1924)
from 12 Études d’exécution transcendante
IV. Térek (1900) [4:03]
V. Nuit d’éte (1900) [8:25]
VI. Tempête (1897) [4:15]
Unsuk CHIN (b. 1961)
Piano Études (1995-2003) [18:56]
Karol SZYMANOWSKI (1882-1937)
12 Studies Op. 33 (1916) [13:52]
Nicolai KAPUSTIN (b. 1937)
Five Études in Different Intervals, Op.68 (1992) [16:20]
Clare Hammond (piano)
rec. 2013, Potton Hall, Suffolk, England.
BIS BIS-2004 SACD [67:22]
Clare Hammond has been making quite a splash of late. Her recent
disc of music
from the Panufnik stable is one of many desirable items from the centenary
year. She follows this with a collection of Études from a wide variety
of composers, opening with a pluck from Sergei Lyapunov’s Lisztian Études
d’exécution transcendante. These three serve to show Hammond’s
technical chops in late Romantic pianism, and there is no arguing about her
skill and musicality in executing such potent examples of the genre. The only
other recording of these works I was able to find was Konstantin Scherbakov’s
complete set on a Marco Polo release from 1993. While Scherbakov is imposingly
dramatic and refined of touch, Hammond is every bit his technical and expressive
equal.
Unsuk Chin is Korean and a former student of Ligeti, whose piano works are
an example to any contemporary composer. Other almost unavoidable influences
in this idiom are the likes of Messiaen, whose birdsong gestures are arguably
also a feature of Chin’s expressive armoury. Her Piano Études
are however by no means a pastiche of other artistic voices, and her “fascination
with virtuosity and the playful side of music-making” result in some
fascinating sonorities. From the low granite might of II. Sequenzen
to the filigree of IV. Scalen, these pieces have an enigmatic abstraction
which needs tuning into. The technical challenges set by un-pianistic figurations
which “lie awkwardly under the hand … exacerbated by the almost
unattainably high tempi which she indicates” make for a meeting of musicians,
composer versus performer, neither of which are prepared to compromise. It’s
an encounter always worth experiencing.
The final G# of Chin’s Piano Études is the perfect transition
to the opening of Szymanowski’s Studies Op. 33, which provide
a further opportunity to compare Clare Hammond with some of her peers. There
are fine performances of these works as part of the Naxos complete Szymanowski
piano music edition, played in this case on Vol. 3 (8.553867) by Martin Roscoe.
Roscoe delivers masses of energy and impetus while exploring inner voices
and maintaining harmonic clarity even when the notes are flying around like
midges in summer air. Hammond is a trifle more heavy with her right foot,
the pedal on occasion obscuring the finer details in some of the faster pieces
while not particularly adding to their exotic atmosphere. This is a picky
comment about some relatively minor corners however, and Hammond’s touch
brings out plenty of colour and vibrancy from Szymanowski’s sonorities.
Her timings on the whole are consistently broader than Roscoe’s but
she doesn’t sound slow. In terms of absolute technical security and
character I would go with Roscoe for these pieces, but only by a very fine
margin.
Nicolai Kapustin is not a name you will come across very often in the record
catalogues, though Naxos has brought out a substantial release of piano works
not so very long ago (review).
The Five Études in Different Intervals are full of the jazzy style
and rhythmic syncopation you might expect if you know this composer’s
idiom, and these Op. 68 pieces are terrific. The first, with the upper voice
in minor seconds, sounds at times as if your hearing has gone blurry. Clare
Hammond revels in Kapustin’s dynamic darting around, and with the intense
speed of these Études the experience is like one of those old movie
clips with Gershwin vamping at the piano at a breakneck pace. The collection
is the perfect fun ending to a superb programme. With BIS’s standard
high level of presentation and superlative recording both in stereo and multi-channel
SACD this release is an easy one for me to recommend.
Dominy Clements
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