<<  -- 8 --  John Bell Young    SCRIABIN ON DISC

OTHER PIANO MUSIC

Preludes. Scriabin wrote several sets of preludes, some comprising only two pieces; the 24 preludes of Op 11 are the best known and most often played. Sofronitsky's pristinely characterized performances are at once intense and philosophical, but also immensely melancholy. Each becomes a world unto its own, emerging with the kind of heightened intensity that Russian poets have for centuries imparted to their verse in public readings. But he also preserves their intimacy, fearless of revealing the composer's vulnerabilities, as well as his own, in public (Denon CDCQ 83286). Fyodorova, too, offers exquisitely detailed, elegantly fashioned readings that put other pianists to shame Pletnev's readings are no less exceptional, and wholly voluptuous (Virgin; NA).

Artur Pizarro also offers beautifully crafted, suavely shaped performances of Op 11 (Carlton). Richter offers 12 of this opus, alongside preludes from Opp 13, 37, 39, 59 and 74, in one riveting performance after another; recorded in Moscow in 1952 (Melodiya 29470). He moves them along at full throttle, making of them something less intimate than imperious, as if each were a matter of life or death. Neuhaus can be heard in soigné, finely graded readings of preludes drawn from Opp 11, 13, 15, 14, and 16 (Dante, and Russian Disc 16247). Likewise, Alexander Goldenweiser's epigrammatic accounts of selected works from Opp 15 and 16 are every bit equal to Sofronitsky's, and remarkable for their poetic refinement (Saison Russe 788032). In the late preludes Op 74, Sofronitsky is no less intense than usual, but Gilels dispatches their arid isolation with extraordinary clarity and aplomb (Melodiya/BMG).

Bekhterev, who draws such opulent sounds from his Steinway and prefers somewhat more languid tempi than most, offers refined, reflective and often ambrosial readings of Opuses 37, 48 and 67 (Phoenix 99507). While I prefer more heated intensity in these works (such as the joyous Op 37:2), Bekhterev is nothing if not thoughtful, laying out each composition in such a way as to allow the listener, as Adorno once put it, to think along with what he hears. His reading of Op 48:2 is one of the most magical on record, an object lesson in interpretive poetry. The wizard Gieseking is marvelous in a rare recording of the complete Op 11 (Music & Arts CD 1098), giving emphasis to the epigrammatic qualities of these elegant works. What a pristine listening apparatus this man commanded, at once cerebral and ethereal, abundantly detailed and invariably enlightening.

Etudes. More's the pity that Sofronitsky only left us a handful of études, but what he did record is an object lesson in how to play them. His readings of selected studies from Opp 8 and 42 are so very rich and so dramatically cognizant as to be overwhelming. Nikita Magaloff brings a great deal of charm and subtlety to his readings of the three major sets of études (Opp. 8, 42 and 65) as well as the popular Op 2:1l (Valois 4714). Arthur Greene's readings are impossibly loud and sink into the vulgar at every available opportunity, but are otherwise sturdy and reliable (Supraphon).. Chitose Okashiro is colorful but too fussy; she has no grasp of the gestural traditions of articulation so indispensable to Scriabin, especially in the études (ProPiano).

Alexander Paley offers lyrical, streamlined performances of the complete études (Naxos). Horowitz is not to be missed in the Op 65 études and a few from Op 45 ( Sony 53472); these performances leap off the page. Elena Kuschnerova turns in respectable, sensitive, and lyrical, if overly elastic performances of Op 8 which compromise rhythmic structure and threaten to become merely sentimental. Marta Deyanova is a technically strong but none too subtle player whose heavily pedaled and heavy-handed readings of the études are matched only by her no less opaque performances of the preludes Opp 32 and 52 (Nimbus); Ms Deyanova (not to be confused with the superior Halida Dinova) is very much a pianist in the competitive Soviet mold who may love Scriabin but really shouldn't play his music.

Mazurkas. Beatrice Long's sturdy, exceptionally well-played reading of the complete mazurkas make a good introduction to these pieces (Naxos 553600), though Francois Chaplin's are perhaps more whimsical and elegant (Harmonia Mundi 4919). Sofronitsky and Fyodorova recorded Op 40. The former is more fiery than the latter, but each plays with the improvisatory air of one who had just composed the works themselves. Best of all is Samuel Feinberg, who plays the Op 3 mazurkas with incomparable finesse and refinement, bringing forth in each a thousand shades of affect and color (Saison Russe 788032). Gordon Fergus-Thompson offers solid, thoughtful performances, which, though expertly wrought, are compromised by a certain heavy handedness and rhythmic prosaicism (ASV 1086).

Nocturnes and Impromptus. There's been a great deal written about Alexis Weissenberg's performance of the famous Nocturne for the Left Hand. It is indeed very good, but not good enough. Mr Weissenberg's usual aggressiveness doesn't help matters; indeed, all quiescence and subtlety is drained out of it (EMI). Fyodorova is wonderful here: quiet and prismatic, she fashions every line as if the work were written for six hands rather than one (Melodiya LP). In Michael Lewin's hands, the Nocturne for the Left Hand exfoliates logically and with handsome results that pay tribute to the tension underlying its otherwise lyrical surfaces. In the early Nocturne Op 5, Kastelsky is reliable and correct.

For some reason the Impromptus have not been widely recorded; they are unusually difficult and present thorny, though subtle, rhythmic challenges. Kastelsky fills this gap admirably in a finely etched account of the exotic two Impromptus of Op 14. Not to be missed is Sofronitsky in the Poème-Nocturne, a work that suits his ethereal temperament. In his hands it simply levitates. Likewise, his penetrating view of the Impromptu Op 14 No 2 is captured on the aforementioned Denon disc (CDCQ 83286) available only in Japan.

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