The chamber versions of Chopin’s piano concertos, reworked
for piano, string quartet and double bass, have made occasional
appearances on disc in recent years. My own shelves hold the
1996 world premiere recording by Fumiko Shiraga/the Yggdrasil
Quartet/Jan-Inge Haukås (BIS-CD-847),
as well as one of the E minor concerto only that was set down
two years later by Jean-Marc Luisada/the Talich Quartet/Benjamin
Berlioz (RCA
Red Seal 74321 632112). There may be others of which I am
unaware.
Now comes this new version from Edward Auer who became the first
American to win a prize at Warsaw’s International Chopin
Competition when he took 5th place in 1965, the year
that Martha Argerich emerged as winner. Mr Auer currently teaches
at Indiana University and is producing a series of discs of
Chopin’s music, of which this is the third.
For those unfamiliar with these arrangements, it’s worth
noting that their provenance is authentic. Chopin’s own
words describe how he utilised chamber performances of his concertos
for rehearsal purposes - presumably for section leaders - before
performances by full orchestra: “I am to practise my concerto
with the quartet in order to make myself clear to them …
for otherwise … the orchestra rehearsal would not run
smoothly from the outset” [quoted in David Montgomery’s
fascinating booklet notes for the BIS recording.] Canny publishers
also saw that there was an opportunity, in an age of widespread
amateur music-making, to market the concertos in a form suitable
for domestic performance.
The most obvious characteristic of these accounts by Edward
Auer and his colleagues is that they adopt a rather more relaxed
and leisurely approach than do their competitors. That observation
is true in five of the six movements under consideration. Using
the stopwatch approach gives, it is true, only a crude pointer
to overall musical performance but, when the results are as
consistent as we have here, it is certainly worth noting the
point.
| Concerto no.1 |
Shiraga et al.,
1996 |
Luisada et al.,
1998 |
Auer et al., 2010
|
| Allegro maestoso |
19:05 |
19:59 |
20:53 |
| Romance (larghetto) |
9:47 |
9:32 |
9:45 |
| Rondo (vivace) |
9:50 |
10:16 |
10:38 |
| Concerto no.2 |
Shiraga et al.,
1996 |
Auer et al., 2010
|
| Maestoso |
14:08 |
14:59 |
| Larghetto |
8:59 |
9:24 |
| Allegro vivace |
8:47 |
9:00 |
Of the recordings in competition with this new release, the Shiraga
is characterised by a degree of enthusiastic energy and impulsiveness
that points forward to the Romantic age, while Luisada creates
a more refined effect that takes a glance back towards the Classical
era. The sound that their respective engineers have given them
tends to emphasise that difference in approach: the BIS is more
immediate and in-your-face while, for Luisada, RCA’s technicians
have created a more mellow, “drawing-room” acoustic.
Auer and his colleagues tend to fall somewhere within that interpretational
gap, though inclining more to Luisada, who was, coincidentally,
another fifth prize winner of the Warsaw International Chopin
Competition - in his case in 1985 when the top prize went to Stanislav
Bunin. The very opening of the E minor concerto offers a telling
example: while Shiraga joins in enthusiastically to support and
add weight and colour to the strings during the long “orchestral”
opening, both Lusaida and Auer remain silent until the piano’s
traditional point of entry. Interestingly enough, although in
his own booklet notes Mr Auer concedes that “it was customary,
in Chopin’s time, for the pianist to play along with the
orchestra” he rather vaguely explains that he has opted
not to do so in these recordings because “somehow my ear
wouldn’t allow me to follow this practice”.
In general, the Auer performances are slightly more forward and
big-boned than those from Luisada but certainly not as impetuous
and spontaneous-sounding as those from Shiraga. I confess that
I find the latter’s extrovert approach very compelling.
Perhaps an awareness that they were setting down world premiere
recordings was responsible, but they very successfully communicate
a sense of real excitement and discovery. It is also worth pointing
out that Ms. Shiraga specialises in this sort of repertoire. Her
other recordings have included several of Hummel’s chamber
arrangements of Mozart’s piano concertos as well as Beethoven’s
first and third concertos in versions for chamber forces.
Even so, it is impossible to deny that Edward Auer and his fellow
artists offer performances that are both technically extremely
assured and very enjoyable in their own right. I have no doubt
that listeners will respond to their approach, especially in the
concertos’ many passages of delicacy and limpid beauty where
they successfully avoid the danger of sounding effete or enervated.
The disc is not presented in a jewel case. Instead it comes -
along with a few pages of notes about the music and the performers
- in a sturdy cardboard sleeve that will take up a little less
space on your shelf. You may have noticed, incidentally, that
there is no catalogue number. That need not, though, cause any
problems because the discs may be ordered direct from
www.edwardauer.com.
Rob Maynard
Edward Auer (piano) 