Piano Potpourri, No. 9 (CD mini-reviews)

By Karl W. Nehring

Rachmaninov: Piano Sonata No. 1 in D minor Op. 28; Prelude in D minor Op. posth.; Oskolki ‘Fragments’; Oriental sketch; Nunc dimittis from All-Night Vigil ‘Vespers’; Moments musicaux Op 16. Steven Osborne, piano. Hyperion CDA68365.

These days the tendency is to think of Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943) primarily as the composer of piano concertos (especially his second and third) and symphonies (again, especially his second and third) and forget that he was one of the greatest piano virtuosos the world has ever known (blessed with amazingly large hands) and the composer of many and varied compositions for solo piano. It takes a true master of the keyboard to do these works justice, and the good gentleman from Scotland, Steven Osborne (b. 1971), is a modern-day pianist well-suited to the task. The major work on the program is the one that leads it off, the Piano Sonata No. 1, its imposing three movements taking up more than 35 minutes as performed here. From the opening measures you can gather that it was indeed composed by a keyboard virtuoso, with fingers being asked to fly and flutter across the keyboard with breathtaking abandon. The middle movement. marked Lento, is less feverishly paced but still densely packed with expression – and notes – and then the Allegro molto finale brings fourteen minutes of pianistic grandeur. Osborne then changes the mood with some shorter pieces before presenting the other major composition on the program, the six Moments musicaux, which present a variety of moods, from intense to reflective, from somber to playful. Hyperion provides Osborne with a warm sound, somewhat more ambient than then norm, but at least in my stero setup, the piano image seemed a bit too large at times, with the sections of the keyboard somewhat disconnected from each other. Still, I prefer this kind of sound to the too-close approach too often encountered. Overall, this is a splendid disc.

Chopin: Nocturne in C minor Op. 48/1; Nocturne in E Major Op. 62/2; Fantasy in F minor Op. 49; Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor Op. 58. Ivo Pogorelich, piano. Sony Classics  9439912052.

The Yugoslav-born Croatian pianist Ivo Pogorelich (b. 1958) first received widespread attention in 1980 at the International Chopin Piano Competition when the famed and revered pianist Martha Argerich resigned from the jury in protest after Pogorelich was eliminated in the third round, calling the young pianist a “genius.” Some critics loved him, others looked down on him. His live recitals were wildly popular, but his early recordings received mixed reviews. He then went two decades without releasing a recording, finally returning to the studio in 2019. Which brings us to his most recent effort, which focuses on some of the later works of Chopin, and finds him now releasing this recording through the Sony Classics label after a long association with Deutsche Grammophon. Pogorelich brings out the dramatic elements in this music, emphasizing dynamic contrasts and displaying he ability to play with both power and sensitivity. This is clearly music that is close to his heart, but he does not let that constrain him to play it softly and sweetly – he plays it with power and authority. He is aided in this effort by the engineering, which presents his Steinway in very agreeable sound: powerful, yet smooth and focused.

Chopin: Scherzos Nos. 1-4; Polonaise-fantaisie in A-flat major, Op. 61; Andante Spianato et Grande Polonaise Brillante, Op. 22; Fantaisie-impromptu, Op. 66. Naive V 7700. 

1908. Ravel: Gaspard de la nuit; Rachmaninoff: Piano Sonata No. 1 in D minor Op. 28. Valentin Lisitsa, piano. Naïve V 7583.

Pianist Valentina Lisitsa (b. 1973) followed an unusual path to musical fame. In 2007 she posted a video of her playing Rachmaninoff to YouTube. She started getting some hits, picking up some followers, and things took off from there. In 2012, she parlayed her YouTube popularity into a contract with Decca, which led to a series of her recordings being released on that label. Today, she has well more than 500,000 subscribers on YouTube and a new three-year contract with the French recording label, Naïve. Should you be curious about what her videos might be like, you can find a sampling here: http://www.valentinalisitsa.com/video.

The liner notes of the Chopin album include an interview with Lisitsa that include some interesting observations about Chopin’s music and her approach to playing it, such as, “One of the best pieces of advice I received as a young student was: ‘Don’t ever play Chopin as if he were about to die from tuberculosis.’ I was startled by this phrase, and I only began to understand its many levels of meaning later on… Only when I heard the finished recording as a whole did I realise how dramatic it had turned out to be.” Those taking a look at the cover photo of Ms. Lisitsa who might somehow be expecting a dreamy, “feminine” (whatever that might quite be) performance will be in for something of a surprise, as these readings are, as the pianist has herself characterized them, on the dramatic side. These are compositions that are colorful and extroverted, not subdued and introspective, and that is how Ms. Lisitsa plays them. They are also varied in structure, Chopin letting his creative imagination wander freely; here they sound playful more so than dreamy. The piano (a Steinway) sounds full and warm; it was recorded by a Russian team that really seemed to have things dialed in just fine.

The liner notes for 1908 observe that “the year 1908 was one filled with activity: the Ford Model T car, the Paris premiere of Boris Godunov in Diaghilev’s Saison Russe, the mysterious Tunguska meteorite event, still not fully explained even today, the Messina earthquake… it was also then year in which two of the greatest living composers, from France and Russia respectively, composed their most substantial piano works. Maurice Ravel wrote Gaspard de la nuit and famously claimed it to be the hardest piano work ever composed, while Sergei Rachmaninoff wrote his Piano Sonata No. 1 – a monstrously difficult piece, and by far the longest solo piano work he would ever write. The two three-movement works may not sound the same — Ravel’s exquisite and dazzling suite versus Rachmaninoff’s powerful, dark, intense, and thrilling sonata.” Lisitsa presents the Ravel piece first on the program. In her hands, it does not seem to sound as though it is the most difficult piece to play ever composed (of course, more than a century has passed since its composition – yikes!), but it is certainly a dazzling work, an imaginative, lively, exuberant composition that the listener can hardly believe came from the same fellow who wrote the much more stately Le Tombeau de Couperin for piano, a performance of which was recently reviewed here:  https://classicalcandor.blogspot.com/2022/08/piano-potpourri-no-8-cd-reviews.html.

Then it is on to the Rachmaninoff, that imposing thunderstorm of a sonata. Once again, as in the Ravel, Lisitsa has the technique to master this difficult piece and play it with confidence and power. As in the Ravel, she does not sound in the least bit reticent about attacking the keyboard with assertive confidence, allowing the sheer energy of Rachmaninoff’s writing to burst forth. Her love for this music is apparent in the way she makes it ring out.

Given that I had the Osborne recording available for comparison, I spent some time going back and forth between these two excellent releases to listen for differences in both sonics and interpretation.  My goal is not to pick a “winner,” but rather to offer a quick overview of the differences that I heard between the two. In general, Osborne’s performance was on the smoother, more delicate side, while Lisitsa seemed to play with a bit more dramatic flair.

It is interesting to note that there is a very real sense in which it is simply not possible to completely impressions about sonics from judgments about musical interpretation. Things get complicated. For example, consider that Osborne on Hyperion was playing on a Steinway piano, while Lisitsa on Naïve was playing on a Bösendorfer, not to mention that of course the engineering teams and venues, recording equipment, etc., were completely different for each performer. And, of course, the output levels of the two CDs are not matched. With all those caveats in mind, I would venture to say that the sound of the Hyperion CD had a slightly warmer piano sound, with a touch more ambience, and Osborne’s performance came across as more deft, with a finer touch. The piano sound on the Naïve CD seemed a bit more closely miked, with the piano having a slightly “ringier” sound. However, the image seemed more coherent and the piano seemed livelier (which may have simply been a function of being mixed at a higher level). The performance by Lisitsa came across as more lively and dynamic, which may be in part be due to the lively and dynamic sound. In any event, the Lisitsa recording is an exciting and entertaining release.

The Turning Year. Roger Eno, piano, synthesizers; Scoring Berlin; Christian Badzura, electronics; Tibor Reman, clarinet. Deutsche Grammophon 486 2024.

Some time ago we reviewed an album titled Mixing Colours by the English brother duo Brian and Roger Eno, which you can read about here: https://classicalcandor.blogspot.com/2020/12/some-new-releases-cdsacd-mini-reviews.html. What we have here is an album by keyboardist and composer Roger (b. 1959), whose background has been primarily in ambient music. The music that Eno has composed for The Turning Year, however, has more of a serious, classical feel to it, even though his piano has a more processed sound than would be expected in a more straightforward classical album. There is some added ambience, some electronic processing; still, the overall sound has a nostalgic, almost sentimental sound at times. Eno says of the album, “On listening back to the finished album, I felt it could be seen as series of short stories or photographs of individual scenes, each containing their own character. It was only after I’d finally finalized the running order that I realized just how much of a close relationship one piece has to another and it was this realization perhaps that led to the album’s title.” As summer gets ready to turn into fall, this album might be a fitting soundtrack.

KWN