Great Pianists of the Twentieth Century, Classical Notes, Peter Gutmann
You know those ancient legends where people fervently wish for something, then up
pops a genie and they wind up with far more than they can handle?
I once lamented that while we had fine historical CD surveys of the violin,
cello, viola and even the harpsichord, sorely missing was the most popular
instrument of all, the piano. Well, a genie at Philips must have heard my call. I
was soon reveling in their massive "Great
Pianists of the 20th Century" edition. Would you
believe two hundred discs? And you thought
Bear Family boxes were huge?
Fortunately, the Edition isn't as unwieldy as it
might sound. It comes in 100 mid-priced 2-CD
units, each devoted to a single artist. Sheer size
apart, this is a hugely impressive project. Here's
the stats: 72 pianists, of whom seven giants
(Arrau, Brendel, Gilels, Horowitz, Kempff,
Richter and Rubinstein) are honored with three
volumes each; sixteen more artists get two. (OK, wise guys - the math is correct, since
two of the volumes feature pairs of pianists.) The total running time is over 250 hours,
with most discs very full (some approach 81 minutes!). Much of the music is new to
CD. Although Philips' own material (and that of their Decca and Deutsche
Grammophon affiliates) figures prominently, recordings were licensed from the other
majors (EMI, RCA and Sony) and some smaller labels as well.
Any project of this scope reflects the taste of its producer, in this case life-long piano
enthusiast Tom Deacon, whose credentials and culture I wouldn't dare challenge. Even
so, a few overall quibbles still seem fair, as my frustrations with this edition go beyond
questions of personal taste and in fact seem fueled by the Edition's own liner notes.
While the focus is on solo work, there are also lots of concertos and other works with
orchestra but nothing in between, even though the notes for many sets extol their
subjects' chamber music fame. For a 20th century piano survey, there's hardly any 20th
century piano music, although the notes vaunt several of the artists as committed
modernists. Nor are many early masters of the century (de Greef, Lamond) or the great
composer-pianists (Bartok, Prokofiev) included, presumably because they were not
sufficiently prolific to fill 2 CDs by themselves, even though they are praised in their
students' volumes. Even within individual sets, the notes cruelly tease with unfulfilled
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expectations, touting several artists' preferred repertoire which is omitted from their
volumes; thus, while Leon Fleisher's unique claim to the obscure but fascinating lefthand literature is duly noted, all we get of that is his overly-familiar Ravel Concerto.
Indeed, the selections all too often seem stuck in a standard repertoire rut, with huge
amounts of overlap. Among major works alone over fifty receive three or more
performances. Admittedly, they're mostly masterworks and make for fascinating
stylistic comparisons, but some more variety would have been nice, too. Thus, we get
six versions of Prokofiev's Third Concerto, but none of Beethoven's; eight of Chopin's
Second Sonata but none of Brahms's; and five of Ravel's slight Sonatina but none of his
more substantial Miroirs. If you're looking to assemble a comprehensive survey of great
piano music, this clearly won't do.
Rather, the organizing principle was to create musical portraits of some of the most
distinctive personalities of the recorded era. To that end, the project is wildly successful
– absorbing one of these volumes reveals as much
of its subject as a detailed biography or analysis.
Once you're willing to submit to the producers'
quirks, this edition affords a wealth of fabulous
pianism that combines stunning technique, profound
musical understanding and brilliant interpretive
insight.
But where do you start? Philips has made that a
very easy choice. For the price of a single mid-line CD, they've packaged a hardcover
book of artist bios and a piano history with a 2-CD sampler of selections from all but
two of the artists (licensing problems?), graced with cogent performance notes. But
please don't mistake Philips's gesture for generosity. Hearing this stuff is addictive and
you'll be sorely tempted to plunge into the full Edition.
The sampler will help guide you to your own favorites. Here are mine among the first
fifty volumes. They're in no particular order; my current favorite invariably is the one
I've heard most recently.
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Schnabel's Beethoven, Kempff's Brahms, Rubinstein's Chopin, Cortot's
Schumann, Richter's Prokofiev and Laroccha's Albinez all are utterly
transparent - they sublimate ego to achieve full identification with a composer's
expression - and thus represent the ultimate triumph of truly great artistry.
Along with Schnabel and Cortot, Lhevinne and Rachmaninoff were "Golden
Age" pianists, whose authenticity arose from immersion in the very tradition that
produced our core repertoire; while younger artists try to emulate that vision,
these guys lived it.
Rosalyn Tureck recreates Bach with rarefied feeling.
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Maria Yudina jolts often staid Bach and Beethoven variations with electrifying
authority.
Alfred Brendel presents Haydn and Schubert with sparkling clarity.
Clifford Curzon presents Mozart and the same Schubert with exquisite
sensitivity.
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Shura Cherkassky imbues Chopin with sweeping personal poetry.
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Mikhail Pletnev enlivens his Tchaikovsky with balletic elan.
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Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli colors the impressionists with radiant hues.
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John Ogden revitalizes unusual repertoire with compelling intensity.
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Lyubov Bruk and Mark Taimanov, duo-pianists, may double your pleasure.
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Byron Janis, Julius Katchen and Leon Fleisher are quintessentially American
- bold and brash.
Evgeny Kissin dazzles as a phenomenal teenage prodigy.
Dinu Lipatti, Clara Haskil and Ingrid Haebler communicate with disarming
directness.
Ivan Moravec plays so smoothly you'll forget that his piano's a percussion
instrument.
Maurizio Pollini, Zoltan Koksis, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Alexis Weissenberg
and Martha Argerich play with clean, modern splendor that defies pigeonholing.
Nothing, though, matches the inspiration of a live concert. If I had to choose just
one volume as a great place to start it would be the first devoted to Sviatoslav
Richter, which combines his definitive Prokofiev with a staggeringly intense
1958 Sofia recital that amply validates why many consider Richter to have been
the pianist of the century. Also wondrous is an awesome 1974 concert of Bach,
Chopin and flashy showpieces by Jorge Bolet.
I'm even thrilled with the packaging, a rare emotion since the demise of gatefold LPs. In
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lieu of a clunky double jewelbox, each volume comes
as a DigiPak, a hardback book with stiff paper CD
sleeves glued to the inside covers and the notes bound
in between. The DigiPak takes up the same space as a
single jewelbox, but it's far more attractive and sturdy.
It's great to see a major label adopt a sensible
alternative to the crummy jewelbox. Boy, do I hate
those things! Oh, I know all the marketing rationales.
Durable? Try dropping one on the floor. Attractive?
Not unless you've got a plastic fetish. Compact? They're mostly wasted space, hogging
three times the room needed for a CD, booklet and paper sleeve. And all the crocodile
tears once shed over the longbox pale compared to the sheer environmental waste of
these things, which promise to bloat landfills for generations to come.
But the DigiPaks do present a slight problem - it's nearly impossible to extract the discs
from their tight sleeves without fingerprinting and scratching them; not
with major globs and gouges that cause mistracking, but the type that leads
clerks in used CD stores to feign agony. If you're up for an art project, you
can cut out an hourglass piece from the top of the sleeve to the center hole
and then guide the CD in and out with your finger - an inconvenience,
perhaps, but well worth escaping the tyranny of the jewelbox.
Oh, one thing more. As if 200 CDs were not enough, the producer mentioned in a
Gramophone interview that he was working on another hundred volumes! Amid the
abundant glories of the present edition, I won't deny that I just may have wished for that!
=============
Hopefully, my overall enthusiasm for the marvels of the "Great Pianists of the 20th
Century" Edition is amply evident from the foregoing column concerning the first half.
Now that the remaining fifty volumes have been released, I'd like to update my
recommendations to cover some highlights of the rest somewhat more expansively
without the constraints of print limitations:
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Geza Anda - Just call this volume Geza Anda's Greatest Hits. Anda is best
remembered for one of the greatest early triumphs of crossover marketing, in the
ancient times before soundtrack albums. His ravishing
1961 rendition (at the keyboard and conducting) of the
andante of Mozart's Piano Concerto # 21 in C was
popularized as the theme from the 1967 Swedish
romantic film Elvira Madigan, which then returned the
favor when Anda's original album was reissued with a
wistful cover portrait of the lead actress and became a
smash hit - deservedly so, as the performance is truly exquisite, lush but with
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Great Pianists of the Twentieth Century, Classical Notes, Peter Gutmann
ample respect for Mozart's chamber sonority. The net result: even today, the
Mozart 21st is still known as the "Elvira Madigan" Concerto. Among classical
buffs, though, Anda is better remembered for his fabulous idiomatic set of the
Bartok Piano Concertos with Ferenc Fricsay and the RSO Berlin. Connoisseurs
further revere Anda for his deeply contemplative set of the Chopin Waltzes,
waxed in his final half-year. All three performances comprise this fine edition.
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Martha Argerich (b. 1941), volume 2 - Beyond exciting accounts of the
Schumann Second and Liszt b minor Sonatas, the emphasis here is on Chopin,
including the complete Preludes and Third Sonata.
Argerich's approach provides a clear rebuke to classical
gender stereotyping: the Chopin of Anda, Cherhassky,
Moravec and other guys in the Great Pianists Edition
oozes soft, gentle, nurturing sensitivity - "effeminate," if
you will - while Argerich's is aggressive, bold,
temperamental and edgy. There's lots of beauty, but it's
the type that emerges in contrast to rough, elemental power. There's also plenty
of romanticism here - not the pale, wispy pining sort, but one that seems to better
reflect the ardent, fevered, emotional tumult of a young, conflicted composer.
This is a stunning collection.
Jorge Bolet, Volume II - Here's another superb Liszt collection to place
alongside the Horowitz, Cziffra and Ogden volumes. But even beyond its
intrinsic splendor, this set highlights the glory of the medium of recordings,
which we often disparage in favor of concerts. Indeed,
Bolet's own volume I is devoted to a stunning 1974
Carnegie Hall recital, the liner notes to which carp that
Bolet was far happier before an audience, and
suggesting that his studio work was cautious and less
inspired. But that's simply not true. While concerts and
records are surely different media, neither is inherently
superior to the other. The edgy fireworks of a concert are indeed thrilling to
experience (and indeed are fitting to keep the attention of the audience) but can
tend to wear thin over repeated hearings. Great studio recordings, intended to be
savored in private, can wield a more subtle but perhaps more lasting power that
transcends the moment. While avoiding the the greater visceral excitement and
risk-taking of a concert, Bolet's studio Liszt exerts a unique spell - confident,
relaxed, finely-structured, and assertive without being overwhelming. Take, for
example, the Harmonies du Soir. Richter's stunning live 1958 Sofia version (on
his Volume I) builds to a shattering climax, rendered in white heat with blazing
virtuosity, leaving the listener drained with exhaustion. Bolet's, though, gleams
with a subtlety that could get lost in the concert hall, pulsing instead with an ebb
and flow of fluid feeling, lifting you up and letting you down gently in the peace
of your home. The marvel begs to be heard again as soon as it's over - a special
type of magic that only recordings can conjure.
Robert Casadesus (1899 - 1972) - The perceptive notes by Farhan Malik
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pinpoint the "problem" in attempting to describe Casadesus's art - you really
can't. Casadesus is perhaps best heard as a bridge between centuries and cultures.
Born in 1899, he may have been the "last great pianist
of the 19th century" and indeed, although allied with the
French modernists, his style was of the old school heavy rather than elegant, with lots of detail subsumed
into structural attention. The first disc is devoted to
Baroque (Bach, Rameau and Scarlatti), with precise
articulation imbued with feeling and inflection, and
early Beethoven (the Sonata # 2), gentle and light. The second disc begins by
documenting one of the great duo-piano teams on record - Robert and his wife
Gaby, who imbue Faure's Dolly Suite and especially Debussy's En Blanc et Noir
with exquisite feeling and deep emotional coordination; it's a shame that the Six
Epigraphes Antiques, its original LP companion, is omitted, despite ample CD
capacity. Robert then flatters Faure solo pieces with his devoted attention. The
set concludes with his 1947 Ravel Piano Concerto in D for the Left Hand with
Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra, which is not only deservedly famous in
its own right but also rings with authority stemming from the close association
between performer and composer.
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Christoph Eschenbach (b. 1940) - Here is another bold, exciting performer who
transforms everything he encounters with sensationally clean articulation into a
vibrant, living experience. But for every rule there's an exception, and here it's a
more earth-bound Beethoven First Concerto with von
Karajan, to whose literalism Eschenbach bends his own
inspiration to produce a strong if characterless reading
in which the extended four-minute cadenza and an
exquisite adagio speak more eloquently than the rest.
The rest of his program is both generous (both discs run
over 80 minutes) and striking - breathtakingly swift
Haydn sonatas, precise and eloquent Mozart (the "Ah, vous dirai-je, Maman"
Variations and the Sonata in F, K. 332), sparkling early Schumann (the "Abegg"
Variations and Op. 4 Intermezzi) and a sharply-etched Schubert Sonata in A, D.
959.
Edwin Fischer, volume 1 - Nowadays we are so used to "authentic" period
renditions of Bach played with phenomenal precision on original instruments
that we tend to forget that there is another way to
approach this most universal of all composers. Fischer
is a glorious throwback who plays his Bach on the
concert grand with an exquisite velvet touch and
boatloads of personal inflection. While his renditions of
three piano concertos and excerpts from "The 48" are
revelatory, especially startling are three fantasy pieces,
in which his free-wheeling departures from modern interpretive expectations are
especially strong and uniquely compelling. Which style is truly the more
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authentic? From a purely emotional point of view, they're equally valid and only
serve to prove the futility of aesthetic arguments in face of the transcendent
universality of Bach's timeless art.
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Edwin Fischer, volume 2 - Fischer's first volume is devoted to his lovely, rich,
old-fashioned Bach. The second, exploring the rest of the core German repertoire
in which he specialized, is fueled by two marvelous
concerto recordings. His 1933 account of the Mozart
Concerto # 20 is lean, pointed, vital and heartfelt
without sentimentality. His 1951 reading of the
Beethoven Emperor with Furtwangler and the
Philharmonia generates a far different excitement,
charged with spiritual drama from the closely-attuned
philosophical interplay of soloist and conductor deeply immersed in German
tradition. The second disc presents the Mozart Fantasia in c minor, K. 475, the
Schubert Impromptus, D. 899 and the Beethoven Appassionata and Op. 110
Sonatas, all played with a direct, natural, self-effacing and utterly convincing
manner that sounds ineffably right. Fischer's art is not colorful, but it has infinite
degrees of careful shading.
Leon Fleisher - This set, to me, is a sadly missed opportunity. Although not by
choice, Fleisher has established a unique reputation as a champion and superb
interpreter of the literature for the left hand alone. All
we get here of it, though, is the Ravel Concerto for the
Left Hand. Fleisher's performance is superb, but it's
hardly unique; indeed, those of Katchen and Casadesus
are included in their volumes of this same Edition. The
rest of the Fleisher set consists of his youthful records
of Liszt, Copland, Mozart and Weber sonatas, recorded
prior to the mid-sixties when he lost the use of his right hand to a nervous
affliction. Fine as these are, the producers missed a great opportunity to present
Fleisher in a realm in which he alone reigns supreme. The left-handed literature
may not overflow with great masterpieces, but it provides a fascinating
demonstration of using musical resources to overcome fearsome limitations. And
perhaps that is the ultimate value of such pieces -- they epitomize the wonder of
art, which uses everyday materials within structural confines to lift us above the
physical world into a far more extraordinary and limitless one. The portrait of
Fleisher presented here is one of sad regret, of a brilliant standard career cruelly
cut short by tragedy. More valuable would have been the musical proof of an
intensely uplifting human drama of triumphing over crushing odds. We can hear
lots of great Liszt and Mozart (even in this very Edition), but to whom else can
we turn for a Toccata by Takacs?
Andrei Gavrilov - The notes attempt to neatly divide Gavrilov's career (so far)
into two phases - that of a youthful firebrand in Russia, and then a mature
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international outlook after his emigration in 1984. But
this simplistic chronology is belied by his passionate
1993 Bach French Suite # 6 and a wistful 1973 Handel
Suite in d minor. Rather, this program boasts brilliant
virtuosity, constantly evolving and consistently serving
the cause of a wide variety of music - a strongly
characterized Chopin Ballade # 2, exciting Tchaikovsky
Theme and Variations, a probing Mozart Fantasia in d minor, a potent Prokofiev
Concerto # 1, rich Rachmaninov Moments Musicaux, a fiery Scriabin Sonata # 4
and wondrous excerpts from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet ballet, all capped by a
stunning account of Balakirev's Islamey. The only curiosity is a weighty
Schumann Papillons that emerges more as an iron butterfly than a dappled flight
of imagination. Both in variety and execution, this is a breathtaking volume.
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Walter Gieseking, Volume 2 - I'm deeply torn over this set. Artistically, it's
consistently sensational and it ends with one of the greatest piano recordings ever
made - Gieseking's 1937/8 Ravel Gaspard de la Nuit.
The exquisite subtlety of Gieseking's touch, the
astounding color he conjures, and the sheer flow of his
notes are absolutely breathtaking. And yet, much of the
wonder is ruined by miserable transfers. In a sadly
misguided (and largely unsuccessful) attempt to reduce
the surface noise (of which plenty remains), the music is
stripped of both bass and treble, leaving a boxy, synthetic sound that barely
resembles a piano. Both the original LP transfer on Columbia ML 4773 and a
prior CD on Pearl 9449 preserve the tonal richness and convey the depth of
Gieseking's extraordinary sound. Such a shame! Equally lousy transfers diminish
the marvels of Debussy's first book of Preludes and his Estampes. Swift and
precise readings of the same vintage of Beethoven's Waldstein and Appassionata
Sonatas come across somewhat better. If you can stand some increased
"sizzle,"get the Pearl CD of the wondrous Debussy and Ravel.
Emil Gilels, Volume 3 - The final volume devoted to the great Russian colossus
emphasizes his lyric side. It begins with a 1972 account of the Brahms Second
with Eugen Jochum and the Berlin Philharmonic that
deliberately eschews the dramatic challenges of the
work but reaches extraordinary expressive heights,
especially in the ravishing andante (ironically the
movement in which the piano plays the least role).
There's also a rarely-heard Clementi Sonata and an
intense and powerful account of the duo-piano Schubert
Fantasy, D. 940 in which Gilels is partnered by his daughter Elena, who
reinforces his full-blooded yet searching approach. Perhaps most fascinating,
though, are the two Chopin Sonatas. Op. 35, from a 1961 concert, bristles with
elemental energy and nervous tension, especially in Gilels' jagged shaping of the
propulsive phrases of the first movement. Op. 58 (from 1978) begins with a burst
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of quirky passion but then subsides into a beautifully flowing, leisurely (30
minutes, rather than the usual 24 or so), autumnal discourse. Four gorgeous
Grieg Lyric Pieces top off a wonderful tribute to a well-rounded and deeply
sensitive artist.
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Grigory Ginsburg - Heard after the brilliance of Gavrilov, this volume serves as
a reminder that traditional Russian piano playing is not the blinding virtuosity
and thundering energy of Gilels, Richter or Horowitz,
but a far more refined and contemplative style - a
reflection of conservative Russian society before the
Revolution, when ideals were far closer to European
nobility than unleashed Slavic passion. Thus, in
Ginsburg's hands Beethoven's explosive Rondo a
capriccio in G, Op. 129, aptly titled the "Rage Over the
Lost Penny," sounds more like Mozart annoyed than Beethoven in a fury.
Ginsburg's grand style brings a fine sense of structural unfolding to six Liszt
Hungarian Rhapsodies, Tchaikovsky's Grande Sonate in G, two transcriptions of
Eugene Onegin and obscurities from Medtner and Miaskovsky. But don't
mistake Ginsburg's approach for a masking of uncertain technique; the glissandi
in his Hungarian Rhapsody # 10 are stunning and the Prokofiev Sonata # 3 is
suitably brilliant. It just goes to show that sometimes smoldering embers can
provide as much heat as a roaring blaze.
Leopold Godowsky - Those who heard him in private considered Godowsky the
greatest pianist of his generation, but he reportedly was intimidated by public
performances and often sounds stiff on record. Indeed,
the 12 Chopin Nocturnes heard here are charitably
described in the liner notes as "earthbound," and that
could be said as well of his Beethoven "Adieu" Sonata.
The Schumann Carnival, Chopin Sonata # 2 and Grieg
Ballade fare better, despite poor transfers; side 1 of the
Grieg is badly damaged, unlike the transfer on Pearl
9133. Perhaps the finest piece is the Chopin Scherzo # 4, reconstituted from an
acetate dub and a test pressing, in which, despite dreadful sound, Godowsky for
once seems to catch fire and leave his inhibitions aside. But it's hard to separate
one's reaction from the poignant circumstances of this recording - right after
completing it, Godowsky suffered a stroke that ended his career; could he
possibly have sensed that this might be his last performance?
Glenn Gould - Here's a bizarre collection. Gould had a reputation as one of the
most eccentric pianists, but somehow I don't think the producers programmed
Gould's volume with Byrd, Gibbons, Scarlatti, Bizet, Strauss and Berg as a salute
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to his artistic personality. Gould was arguably the most
important Bach player of all time. His deeply personal
ideas were both praised as brilliant and reviled as
perverse but never ignored. Here, though, they are
wholly ignored -- we get not a note of his Bach (or even
his equally controversial Beethoven). Rather, his
volume is filled with throwaway stuff peripheral to his
artistry. The liner notes forthrightly acnowledge this gaping lapse and gallantly
try to infer Gould's greatness from bare hints derived from the stuff that's
included. But why? I can only assume that the licensing process here fell more
than a bit short of the love-fest of cooperation suggested by the publicity
surrounding the Edition. I suspect that Sony, for one, kept all the best Gould
material for its own recently-completed Glenn Gould Edition (which,
incidentally, is a huge ripoff, full-priced but with many of its discs barely half
full). It's also worth noting that the only two artists absent from the sampler
volume of this Edition are Gould and his Sony label-mate Rudolf Serkin, and
that according to the intended release schedule printed in the sampler Gould was
to have had two volumes, but one of his two numbers was later reassigned to
Gieseking.
●
Frederich Gulda, volume 2 - The turgid excerpt in the sampler scared me away
from his first, all-Debussy and Ravel volume. Here, though, are extraordinary
performances - solidly classical but with brilliant touches of individuality. The
Chopin Ballades are incredible, fast but not rushed and
filled with invention and life. The Beethoven and
Chopin Concertos # 1 boast chamber sonorities,
decades ahead of modern, "authentic" versions. The
liner notes, though, constantly tease with anticipation of
the really great phase of Gulda's artistry that they claim
would follow these ‘fifties records. Since Gulda isn't
exactly a household name here in the Colonies, I'd like to have heard some of his
real glories, but they're nowhere to be heard. The set concludes with a six-minute
live jam with an unidentified jazz combo. Are the producers suggesting that jazz
is a natural extension of traditional classical music (as indeed it is)? If so, then
lots of other great pianists of the twentieth century beg to be included in future
volumes - Jellyroll Morton, Fats Waller, Art Tatum, Erroll Garner, ...
Myra Hess (1890 - 1965) - Modern memories of Myra Hess tend to focus upon
her unstinting service to her country in World War II, when she organized and
participated in over a thousand concerts to boost British
morale. This set memorializes her equally important
service to her art. Hess's reputation was as a deeply
serious artist, and at first her records seem uninspired
and prosaic. But still waters do run deep and once her
dignity and emotional reticence are accepted, they
subtly radiate the profound peace and inner contentment
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of a mature master. Over half this volume is devoted to her superb Schumann.
Her Etudes Symphoniques are dark and brooding, deeply burnished, with muted
energy constantly smoldering beneath the surface. Her 1938 Carnival and an LP
remake of the Concerto forego their inherent playfulness for autumnal gentleness
and poetic restraint. (The notes attribute part of this to her aversion to recording,
and indeed a contemporaneous live recording of the Concerto with Mitropoulos
on AS Disc 627 is more inflected. But the intellectual and emotional control of
her studio records creates their own power.) Her cerebral and magisterial
approach crafts profound, beautifully-shaped and deeply moving experiences of
two late Beethoven sonatas (Op. 109 and 110). But this otherwise fine
celebration of a national and musical icon ends on a doleful note, with a stilted
and cranky 1957 remake of her celebrated signature arrangement of Bach's Jesu,
Joy of Man's Desiring, whose crude dynamics and insecure rhythms are a cruel
echo of her devout 1940 HMV version (available on Biddulph 025).
●
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Josef Hofmann (1876 - 1957) - The label sticker boasts that this set contains the
bulk of Hofmann's approved recordings. That may be true, but it's an unfortunate
one-sided portrait - literally, since nearly all consist of
single 78-sided encores. They're marvelous in small
doses, but hearing the entire set is something like
making a two-hour meal out of nothing but hors
d'oeuvres. Even so, the exquisite refinement, superb
control and flawless technique that made Hofmann a
pioneer of modern objectivity all manage to burst
through the limitations of the acoustical process. Even the earliest (1903) are
surprisingly effective, transcending the artificial demands, limited fidelity and
compressed dynamics of the recordings. Beyond salon fluff ("Birds at Dawn"),
there's some magnificent Mendelssohn, Liszt, Chopin, Scarlatti, Rachmaninoff
and Moszkowski that display the refined purity of Hofmann's art. Most
extraordinary is a double-sided Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody # 2 that hints at more
emotional heat found in Hofmann's later, albeit "unapproved," recordings, now
on VAI and Marston CDs. Perhaps the most memorable of all was the legendary
November 28, 1937 concert marking the 50th anniversary of his Carnegie Hall
debut. Electrified with a sensitivity and energy that eludes the studio sides,
Hofmann gave stunning readings of the Rubinstein Concerto # 4, which he
played in 189x following two years of study with the composer, his own
neoromantic Chromaticon, a Chopin set and encores, ending with a Moszkowski
Spanish Rhapsody with seemingly more wrong notes than right, and yet of
overwhelming brilliance and power - a sensational tribute to his artistry.
Vladimir Horowitz, volume 3 - A pleasant surprise. In lieu of the redundant
Brahms and Tchaikovsky concertos originally scheduled, the producers have
substituted a full disc of Chopin Etudes, Mazurkas, the Barcarolle and the
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"Heroic" Polonaise. Five pieces are given in two
versions - EMIs from the early ‘thirties and RCA
remakes from the late ‘forties. The readings are
essentially similar, but serve to demonstrate the artist's
evolution from driven, pointed early impulse to a more
self-conscious display of bravura technique. The other
disc contains two essential concerto recordings with
Reiner and the RCA Symphony. The 1952 Beethoven Emperor is a perfect
melding of temperaments of conductor and soloist to produce a clean, propulsive
reading of a masterwork that sounds just fine as pure music, unencumbered by
interpretive rhetoric. The 1951 "Rach 3" lacks the unabashed fire of the
legendary 1930 Horowitz/Coates version but projects a confident swagger that
nearly matches the authority of the composer's own 1940 recording with
Ormandy.
●
●
William Kapell (1922 - 1953) - In thinking of Kapell, it's so hard to avoid
dwelling on regret over what might have been, had he not been killed in an air
crash at age 31, his creative adulthood barely begun. It's clear from the records
he left us that he would have been a preeminent pianist
of our time. True believers will already have obtained
RCA/BMG's complete 9-CD Kapell collection last year,
but this volume provides a nice introduction for the
unconverted. The solos on the second disc range from
an electrifying 1945 Liszt Mephisto Waltz, bursting
with coiled tension, to a deeply human 1953 Bach
Partita # 4, meticulously recorded over four days. His Albeniz Evocacion is
subtly atmospheric, his Liszt Sonetto 104 del Petrarca and Hungarian Rhapsody
# 11 are scintillating, and his Chopin Sonata # 3 is a marvelous synthesis of
power and lyricism. The first disc is devoted to the big, splashy orchestral works
of his early fame, each superbly accompanied by a sympathetic conductor - the
Rachmaninoff Concerto # 2 (Steinberg) and Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini
(Reiner) and the Prokofiev Concerto # 3 (Dorati). But, fine as these overlyfamiliar works are, it seems a shame to have omitted Kapell's seminal recording
with Koussevitzky of the Khachaturian Piano Concerto or, for that matter, his
Beethoven Second with Golschmann, both of which he championed but neither
of which are otherwise represented in this series.
Wilhelm Kempff, volume 3 - Kempff should be cherished by record collectors
for his pioneering integral sets of Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann and Brahms
piano works, long before such projects became commonplace. Kempff's first two
volumes in this series focussed on his somewhat bland
Brahms and Liszt. Here, we have a fine overview of his
art, in which he subsumed his personality to produce
idiomatic readings of the core German repertoire, with
structure and intellect overriding emotion and color.
The program is creative and avoids overlap with other
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artists' volumes. Thus, in lieu of more popular fare, we get Mozart's Concerto # 8
in C, Brahms's Two Rhapsodies, Op. 79, Beethoven's Sonatas #s 2 and 11,
Schubert's "Unfinished" Sonata in C, D. 840 and Schumann's Three Romances,
Op. 28. The set concludes with a great surprise reminiscent of Gieseking Faure's Nocturne # 6 in a quintessentially Gallic reading from a quintessentially
German artist. While lacking the individuality of the golden age pianists or some
of our modern iconoclasts, Kempff's artistry, in the right repertoire, is deeply
satisfying and always seeped in artistic integrity.
●
●
●
Stephen Kovacevich, volume 2 - His first volume was all-Beethoven; this one
presents a more balanced program. The most astounding performance is a
blistering, driven account of the Bartok Piano Concerto # 2 which makes the
classic Anda/Fricsay version (also in the Great Pianists
edition) sound downright romantic. Kovacevich brings
the same clear, energetic, thoughtful precision to his
Beethoven, Chopin and Brahms. This is one of the very
few volumes of the entire Great Pianists series that
delves into modern music, including fine versions of
Stravinsky's Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments,
Bartok's Out of Doors and Sonatina, and Richard Rodney Bennett's powerful
1968 Piano Concerto # 1, written for Kovacevich and custom suited to his
temperament and technical facility.
Alicia de Larrocha, volume 2 - There's something about the bright Iberian sun
that charges artists with a clarifying vision; it boosted Cervantes, Picasso and
others to a level of transcendent insight, all while
retaining an earthy naturalness, and it seems to have
done the same for Alicia de Larrocha. The sole
ambassador of Spain in this collection, her first volume
was filled with readings of Albinez and other
compatriots that were striking for their unpretentious
clarity. Here, she casts a similar lucid eye to the baroque
and classical repertoire which share much of the fundamental outlook of her
countrymen. A whole disc is devoted to Mozart - the Sonatas, K. 310, 330, 331
and 576, and the Rondo in D, K. 485. All are sharp but never brittle, pointed yet
comfortable, subtly implying depth without destroying their classical innocence.
The same can be said for the Haydn Andante con variazioni in f minor and
Handel "Harmonious Blacksmith" Suite. Her Scarlatti sonatas and Bach Italian
Concerto and French Suite # 6, too, achieve a beautiful balance of courtly grace
and life-affirming elan.
Nikita Magaloff (1912 - 1992) - Perhaps it's really a tribute to the richness of the
Great Pianists Edition and how deeply spoiled I've become from exposure to the
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consistent excellence of its performances, but the
prospect of another Chopin recital was less than
electrifying, especially from an artist better known for
his elegance, nobility and technical refinement than for
bold stylization or probing insight. Even so, the second
disc here is a real grabber, simply because it bypasses
well-worn Chopin favorites for such rarities as the First
Sonata, Allegro de concert, Bolero, Tarantelle, Ecossaises, Rondo a la Mazur
and Variations brillantes. Together with a Haydn sonata and Liszt's Six Paganini
Etudes on the first disc, they're all welcome as a refreshing break from the
repetitive programming that has dulled much of the initial enthusiasm (and, I
understand, sales) generated by the earlier releases. (OK - there's also (yawn!)
another Schumann Carnival.) Here's my plea to the producers: if this series is to
continue, please dig deeper into the archives for more adventurous programming,
rather than just more and more and more of the same standard stuff. Make this a
voyage of discovery, not only of performing style but of repertoire as well.
●
●
Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, volume 2 - Whether or not he was the greatest
pianist of his time, as some have claimed, Michelangeli surely was one of the
least conventional and most controversial. With a repertoire narrower than some
one-hit oldies groups and a reputation for bailing out of
concerts worse than many temperamental rock stars,
Michelangeli constantly fascinates by teasing
expectations. His Brahms Paganini Variations are cut
and scrambled (possibly to squeeze onto four 78 rpm
sides) yet magnificent, Beethoven's Sonata # 4 is
drained of its accustomed rhythmic elan, Schumann's
Carnival is both deliberate (31 ½ minutes, as opposed to Rachmaninoff's 23 and
Godowsky's 24) and disrupts the flow with long, melodramatic pauses between
movements, excerpts from Schumann's Album fur die Jugend reflect more
autumnal deliberation than youthful frolic, and ten Chopin Mazurkas and the
Brahms KBallades, Op. 10 are deeply atmospheric and mystical. Wonderful,
challenging stuff, and a welcome throwback to the days when artists' whims
reigned supreme.
John Odgen, volume 1 - This volume has the most painfully honest liner notes.
Picture this: you've just spent $24 plus tax because you were attracted by the
unusual repertoire in which Ogden specialized. Tired of multiple versions of the
standard Chopin, Mozart, Liszt repertoire, you're
eagerly anticipating your first hearing of the obscure
Alkan Concerto for Piano Alone, which occupies most
of the first disc and which the producers must have
singled out from the Ogden discography for good
reason. To enhance your enjoyment, you turn to the
program notes for some insight into the delightful
surprise that surely awaits. And what do you find? Well, not only do the notes
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disdain the piece as "disappointingly ordinary" but they then proceed to trash
Ogden's performance as inferior to the competition ("… the finer spirit of the
piece conceivably eluded him…") and conclude without disapproval that the LP
was quickly deleted. OK -- let's give the writer an "A" for honesty. But really,
guys, if the performance is all that dreadful, what's it doing here?
●
●
●
John Ogden, volume 2 - Known for his love and advocacy of unusual repertoire
(to which his first volume is devoted), Ogden's huge technique, phenomenal
stamina, blazing commitment and vast emotional range, coupled with his
probing intellect and sense of structure, were a natural
fit for Liszt, to which one disc is devoted. The other
disc, though, is even more wondrous - 70 minutes of
Rachmaninoff miniatures, including the complete Op.
33 and Op. 39 Etudes-Tableaux. Usually relegated to
encores or savored singly, these pieces emerge as a
compelling cycle, with a cumulative effect abetted by
Ogden's marvelous integration of the ebb and flow of their power and diffidence.
The CD concludes with Ogden's stunning performance of Balakirev's fearsome
Islamey, recorded live at the 1962 Moscow Tchaikovsky Competition, which
floored the judges and netted Ogden a first prize (shared with Ashkenazy).
Maria Joao Pires (b. 1944) - With an exquisite touch, every phrase is carefully
inflected and alive with care and thought, yielding interpretations that manage to
be deeply personal without becoming idiosyncratic, but
rather reflect deep thought and consideration of how to
present the musical essence. Over half this collection is
devoted to four Mozart Sonatas, ranging from the
deceptively simple K. 545 through the exotic "Turkish"
K. 331 to the profound K. 333; all emerge full-blooded
and adventurous, yet duly respectful of the composer's
sensibilities, more akin to the youthful upstart of "Amadeus" than the gentle,
dignified patriarch of classicism we have often come to accept and expect. The
same qualities infuse the brief but startling cadenza of the Concerto # 14, with
Abbado providing a nice orchestral foil. Three Chopin Nocturnes are restless,
seeking something deeper than the peaceful meditations of Rubinstein and others.
Sviatoslav Richter, volume 3 - The first of Richter's three volumes featured his
celebrated 1958 Sofia concert and Prokofiev, while the second comprised
Beethoven sonatas. This, his final volume, begins with a
quirky 1959 Rachmaninov Second with Wislocki and
the Warsaw Philharmonic that lurches between moods
rather than integrates them, as nearly all other
performances aim to do. Piano and orchestra often
diverge; although the liner notes claim that this is a
deliberate attempt to suggest improvisation, it sounds
far less convincing and just sloppy. The rest of this collection, though, presenting
six Rachmaninov Preludes, 12 Scriabin Etudes and Schumann's Waldszenen,
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Fantasiestucke, Op. 12, Fantasie in C and Toccata, is prime Richter - assertive,
direct, richly satisfying, going right to the heart of the music - in a word, classic.
●
●
Rudolph Serkin - Like the Glenn Gould volume noted above, this is far more a
reflection of licensing problems than a tribute to a great artist. The first hint of
trouble comes before you even remove the shrink-wrap
- the back cover listing of contributing labels omits
Sony, the successor to Columbia for which Serkin
recorded exclusively during his entire mature career. In
lieu of any of his memorable classics, we’re stuck
instead with two early EMI recordings before his unique
fire was fully kindled and four very late DG Mozart
piano concerti after it was nearly extinguished. Thus, we are left to only infer his
rigorous and powerful Beethoven from his first and somewhat tentative 1936
record of the “Appassionata” Sonata rather than the sweeping early stereo
version that was popularized through dozens of LP compilations. Similarly,
despite sparkling sound and sympathetic accompaniment by Abbado and the
London Symphony, we can only glean from these deferential accounts of his
‘eighties tracings of Serkin’s precise but passionate Mozart collaborations with
Szell and Schneider. Alas, by including four valedictory concertos when one
would have sufficed, Serkin’s famous Schubert, Mendelssohn and Brahms are
excluded altogether. The final delusion comes on the last page, where a list of
other available Serkin recordings mentions only those few on EMI and DG,
ignoring all the more consequential ones readily available on Sony, several of
which are on their Essential Classics budget line. In sum, this is a bizarre
collection that sidesteps and ultimately distorts the prime career of one of the
greatest and most influential pianists of the century.
Vladimir Sofronitsky (1901 - 1961) - An icon in his native Russia and hailed by
such luminaries as Richter and Gilels as their master, Sofronitsky was barely
known in the West, as his travels and fame were limited first by the Soviet
regime and then by illness and addiction. A complete
1960 Moscow recital is available on Melodiya which
displays more of the scope of his artistry from Mozart
to Rachmaninov. This set, though, achieves a sharper
focus by devoting an entire disc to each of his two
favorite composers. Sofronitsky absorbed Chopin
during studies in Warsaw; his mazurkas, in particular,
startle with their sharp accents and bold rhythms - a bit crude, perhaps, but
bursting with refreshing excitement. But Sofronitsky will be remembered above
all for his Scriabin. Enthralled with this music from childhood exposure, he
married the composer's daughter, performed on his piano and became a tireless
advocate of his works. But more important than these biographical ties is the
uncanny sense of artistic identification through which Sofronitsky projected
Scriabin's bizarre music in a natural and throroughly convincing way - intensely
atmospheric, powerful and emotionally involving.
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●
●
●
Solomon (1902 - 1988) - No, that's not a typo, but don't be duped by the name.
You'd expect an artist using only a single one to be a flamboyant egotist, but
Solomon's art was the precise opposite, harnessing
polished virtuosity to the service of music. There's lots
of excitement, but it's not from cutting loose but rather
knowing that at any moment he could. Art, after all, is
sublimation. Solomon's disciplined but vital intellect
infuses the Beethoven "Hammerklavier" Sonata (which
flows beautifully despite having been taped over 4
separate sessions), and especially its central adagio sostenuto (which at 22
minutes is very sostenuto indeed), making us hang on each shimmering note
suspended in time. There's also a Brahms Handel Variations, classically reticent
but with a full gamut of expression, a magnificent Bach/Liszt Prelude and Fugue
in a minor, and wonderful Chopin and Liszt. A poignant addition is an August,
1956 Mozart Sonata in B flat, K. 333, Solomon's previously unpublished last
solo recording before the stroke that prematurely ended the career of one of the
true greats of our century. Incidentally, although all other volumes have the same
notes translated into 3 languages, here the French set is different from the
English/German ones. "Pure, but never austere," they say, and that just about
sums up the wisdom of Solomon as well as anything.
Rosalyn Tureck, volume 2 - Bach's Goldberg Variations is a throwback to a
culture light-years removed from our present age of constant and immediate
gratification. The same could be said for this rarefied,
magisterial performance. Glenn Gould and Wanda
Landowska, arguably the primary Bach specialists of
our century, took between 39 and 51 minutes in their
recordings, but Tureck allots 94! Only part of the
difference arises from repeats; the rest lies in the
deliberate unfolding of a multi-layered masterpiece
whose marvels deserve and repay careful scrutiny. The wondrous result is that
each variation serves not only as a brick in the overall structure and a steppingstone toward the conclusion, but establishes its own identity and emerges as an
experience unto itself. And when that breath-taking conclusion does arrive - an
unadorned repeat of the simple wisp of a theme that began the piece and
generated such a universe of creativity - it carries the added weight of an entire
evening of development. Also included are equally fine readings of the Partita in
b minor, BWV 831, the Italian Concerto and four duets, BMV 802-805. (The
complete Partitas comprise Tureck's first volume.) This is unique and distinctive
Bach playing, magnificent in its own right and a worthy complement to the
legacies of Gould and Landowska.
Maria Yudina - I want to conclude on a huge upbeat. Until very recently, Maria
Yudina (1899 - 1970), while a legend in Russia, was virually unknown in the
West, and with good reason. She apparently was a dissident, both politically (she
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was one of the very few who apparently told off Stalin
and survived) and artistically (she was a modernist in an
artistically reactionary cold-war Russia). Not
surprisingly, while others were allowed to concertize,
travel and teach as a reward for their loyalty, her career
sputtered through constant dismissals, bans and
repression. Her only other CD, part of the ten-volume
Melodiya Russian Piano School set, is of modern stuff, dutifully played but
without fireworks. The prospect of her "Great Pianists" set featuring Bach's
Goldberg Variations and Beethoven's Diabelli and Eroica Variations seemed
pretty deadly. Here, I have to admit to an embarrassing personal prejudice although these works are generally considered the apogee of the variation format
(in which a simple melody passes through all sorts of permutations for an hour or
so), they barely keep me awake. (Perhaps that's fitting, since legend has it that
the Bach was commissioned by its patron to cure his insomnia.) Until I heard
Yudina, that is. Wow! As Jimmy Durante (to whom she came to bear more than
a passing resemblance) might have said: "Can that lady play the pianner!" Her
playing is so devoid of frills or personal interpretive baggage, yet so full of
conviction, so vivid, so utterly honest. I can't even imagine nodding off to such
astoundingly verile work.
More than anything else, the Yudina set encouraged me to get many other volumes of
the "Great Pianists of the 20th Century" edition in which at first I was only marginally
interested. True, a few turned out to be duds, but more often than not there were
delightful surprises. It's a tribute to the richness of music that no two listeners will ever
agree as to a single list of the absolute "best" performances, and perhaps that's the
ultimate significance of this Edition. No one will fully endorse the producer's selections,
but there's some fabulous stuff from unexpected places that will deepen and enrich
anyone's understanding and enjoyment of the huge body of piano recordings of the
twentieth century.
Copyright 1999 by Peter Gutmann
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Great Pianists of the Twentieth Century, Classical Notes, Peter Gutmann
copyright © 1999-2000 Peter Gutmann. All rights reserved.
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