About eighteen months ago Acte Préalable - a champion of Polish
music in spite of the French name - released a recital by Jolanta
Stopka and Magdalena Blum of Chopin in mainly late-Romantic
transcriptions for violin and piano. In the event, Chopin's
magical music lent itself rather well to the violinistic resprays
undertaken by masterly hands like Saint-Saëns, Kreisler and
Sarasate.
This review
of that CD states: "The E minor Prelude op.28 no.4 works
well with the violin, although the melody is so hauntingly beautiful
that it would probably succeed even on a tuba." Lo and
behold, here it is on the flute and vibraphone! In fact, two
other pieces heard on that earlier disc also crop up in this
intriguing new recording by Polish flautist Krzysztof Kaczka
and British percussionist Nicholas Reed: the Nocturnes in E
flat major, op.9 no.2 and the posthumously published C sharp
minor.
'Nostalgy' seems a curious title to give the album
- can anyone feel nostalgic about music that has never previously
been heard performed by such an ostensibly odd combination?
On the one hand, the flute and marimba/vibraphone make for a
very dreamy combination, and given the programme's emphasis
on minor-key, melancholic Nocturnes and Preludes and slowed-down
tempi, listening to this disc is in fact a very relaxing way
to pass time. As background music for a candlelit dinner or
a game of cards with a maiden aunt, it is unbeatable.
The transcriptions were all made by Kaczka and Reed. In fact,
these are better described as arrangements, given the changes
in tempo, dynamics and phrasing that rewriting for their instruments
necessitated. At any rate, it is highly unlikely that arrangements
of any nature could manage to add anything to Chopin's
perfect piano writing. The only real debate here is whether
or not Kaczka and Reed's endeavours will prove to be
musically worthwhile in themselves.
Without doubt, these easy-on-the-ear items would go down well
in a live performance, especially if cherry-picked. On balance
though, most people will probably shrug their shoulders: would
Kaczka and Reed not be doing musical posterity a greater favour
by concentrating on recording original works for the
combination? And if the corpus available to them is - as is
probable - rather minuscule, by commissioning new works? Chopin's
music was meant for the piano, after all. Better, surely, to
leave it be, or failing that, to make sure that the piano at
least plays some role.
This is Kaczka's fourth recording for Acte Préalable
(0141, 0145, 0185) but Reed's first. Both give a decent
account of the music, although in truth this is not really a
recital calling for a great amount of expressive detail or technical
virtuosity.
As for sound quality, it is never easy to capture the flute's
range for CD, but Acte Préalable's engineer has done
a good job, even minimising the intrusion of the flautist's
sharp intakes of breath. The Polish, English and German booklet
has a glossy, quality feel, with photos of thoughtful-looking
artists - apart from the one where Kaczka is buried up to his
face in autumn leaves!
The notes are no more than an account by Kaczka of the difficulties
met by the transcription and arrangement project and how they
were overcome. His English is not perfect, but despite a few
odd turns of phrase is more than serviceable. Kaczka reports
that original plans had to be changed in the face of problems
turning piano lines into something for the marimba, and perhaps
therein lies an excuse for the brevity of the programme. In
fact, it is even a minute under the forty-five given, in that
the Prelude in A op.28 no.7 that opens the programme also closes
it.
For newcomers there is nothing in the notes on Chopin or his
original piano pieces. There are a few orthographical errors
in the English version. Strictly speaking, "Frederick
Chopin" is not one of them, but it is ironic that a Polish
product should uphold such a humorous Victorianism. Putting
Chopin's op.9 no.1 Nocturne in B flat minor into the
wrong key - "B minor", according to the track list
- is more of a capital error.
Byzantion
Collected reviews and contact at reviews.gramma.co.uk
Krzysztof Kaczka (flute)