Sokolov and Chopin

Chopin, Preludes (op. 28), Sonata No. 2 (op. 35), Etudes (op. 25) (re-released January 29, 2008) Naïve OP30456 Scores: Chopin's First Editions Online

After last week's review of Alexandre Tharaud's new recording of Chopin's preludes, this compilation of re-releases comes at the right time. A discounted 2-CD set brings together three live recordings by Grigory Sokolov from the 1990s, all of them referential. The Russian pianist, the unanimous Gold Medal winner at the 1966 Tchaikovsky Competition, is a quasi-enigma, known both for his intense, accomplished recitals and an elusive air of mystery. Sokolov is playing op. 28 again in a few recitals this spring and summer (alas, not here in the United States), and that is the work that is the most intriguing here. An almost stifling air of morbidity hangs over many of the movements (one of the dreariest Raindrop preludes I have heard), quite appropriate for this death-infused set. One of the striking things about Sokolov's playing is an unabashed rubato, perhaps old-fashioned but pleasing to hear. In a live situation he takes almost no pauses between movements, which is captured in spite of the CD tracking.

The funeral march sonata (B-flat minor, op. 35) is generally good, especially its gloomy yet steadily propelled third movement (and its muted, music-box middle section). The fourth movement's restless triplets are more spiky than whispering (the marking, for what it's worth, is sotto voce e legato), and the final B-flat minor chord has an A-flat in the middle somewhere (missed note or overtone?) that fades away before the rest of the chord. Sokolov is at his least technically assured in this recording of the op. 25 etudes. The playing is still nothing short of extraordinary, but there are some cracks in the foundation, after all. At $14.99 for two discs, serious Chopin lovers are almost obliged to buy it.

Happy May Day!

According to a Renaissance tradition in France, the muguet flower (lily-of-the-valley) grows on both sides of the Gates of Paradise, and its bell-like flowers ring as a soul enters Heaven. As it comes into bloom around this time of year, it is offered on May Day in France as a porte-bonheur, a sign of good luck for the coming year. Not to favor the pagan over the Christian, today is also the feast day of St. Joseph the Worker, but that tradition is barely a tradition.

To all our readers: Très bon 1er mai!

Masur and the Orchestre National de France

Washington Performing Arts Society brought the Orchestre National de France to the Kennedy Center Concert Hall on Monday night, for its first visit to Washington in 17 years. The orchestra's current U.S. tour is being offered as a valedictory of sorts for departing Music Director Kurt Masur, who has stepped down from several podiums in the last few years. Masur's health issues sadly have worsened visibly since his last visit here: he shuffled to and from the podium, and when his hands dropped to his side, they shook. If this concert turns out to be Masur's final appearance in Washington, then the odd program is surely the best of the possibilities offered on this tour. How welcome the chance to hear Masur conduct Bruckner instead of Tchaikovsky or Dvořák, especially since the planned Bruckner 4th of Masur's last visit (with the London Philharmonic) was replaced with Brahms. The only regret, perhaps, was not to have the Bruckner combined with Masur's Shostakovich.

Bruckner 7th: NY Phil/Masur Orchestre des Champs-Elysées, Herreweghe NDRS/Wand Lucerne/Abbado

We reviewed the Bruckner 7th just last year from the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, but you will not hear us complain. Masur shepherded expansive crescendi in the first movement, adding the brass carefully until ear-crushing volume was reached. The intonation of all of the suspensions and sequences was lovely, and the woodwind principals had bucolic solos in the Rühig section, as Masur paid careful attention to the soft as well as the loud. Problems in the certainty of brass attacks, especially in the horns and Wagner tubas, began here and continued throughout the work. This was doubly unfortunate because the low brass's transition to the Moderato section of the second movement was utterly mysterious and showed what we were missing at other points.

For you Brucknerians keeping track, Masur opted not to include the disputed cymbal crash (or other percussion) in the second movement, a decision supported in no uncertain terms by Robert Haas in his edition (but opposed by Leopold Nowak). An active scherzo revealed a few woodwind intonation clashes, when they were exposed in high range in the Trio, and the movement rattled out of unity as cross-rhythms pulled the texture apart. In general, though, the ONF played with an impressive sense of ensemble and showed clear devotion to their departing director.

Other Reviews: Anne Midgette, Masur Evokes A Golden Bruckner Memory (Washington Post, April 30) Matthew Guerrieri, A master performance, decades in the making (Boston Globe, April 30)

The concert opened with Beethoven's second piano concerto (more of Masur's Beethoven, after his last appearance with the NSO). The young, mildly eccentric French pianist David Fray was the soloist, seated slouch-backed in a chair and humming along in a technically polished, pearly-toned reading. Fray's gentle, flat-fingered touch made for a fairly reserved performance in the first two movements, balanced appropriately by the ONF, guided expertly by Masur. Fray handled the pseudo-cadenza at the end of the slow movement (marked Con gran espressione and Ped.) with dreamy freeness, allowing the triadic gestures to ring out as echoing chords. Fray provided more of a dazzling show in the third movement, paced at a breath-taking speed for all those trills, runs, and arpeggiation. Generous applause from the capacity audience earned an encore, a finely tooled Allemande from Bach's sixth partita (E minor, BWV 830). Masur sat in an empty chair at the back of his violin section and listened, too.

The penultimate concert in the WPAS season will be this Sunday (May 4, 4 pm), a recital by violinist Itzhak Perlman and pianist Rohan DeSilva at Strathmore.

Beethoven, Lots of It

Zuill Bailey and Simone Dinnerstein
Washington Post, April 30, 2008

Beethoven, Sonatas for Cello and Piano
Zuill Bailey (cello) and Simone Dinnerstein (piano)
National Gallery of Art

Verdi in Annapolis

Annapolis Chorale's 'Aida,' Still Getting Primed
Washington Post, April 29, 2008

Giuseppe Verdi, Aida (concert performance)
Annapolis Chorale and Annapolis Chamber Orchestra
Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts (Annapolis, Md.)

Feast of St. Catherine of Siena

Having spent a magical summer studying Dante in Siena, I could not let April 29 go by without observing the feast of St. Catherine of Siena (1347-1380). A Dominican tertiary, Caterina Benincasa lived most of her life as a lay person, organizing a network of people to help the poor and sick in Siena. She was both an intense mystic (like Dante she described visions of Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise, as well as many other ecstatic revelations) and one of the most influential women in medieval history, through her letters and private counsel given to the Pope and other church and secular leaders. She may be more responsible than any other single person for the eventual return of the papacy from Avignon to Rome.

On an embassy to Rome to support the claim of Urban VI during the Great Schism, she died on April 29, 1380. She was buried in the Roman church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva (she was staying with the Dominicans there when she had a fatal stroke), but her head was brought back to Siena by subterfuge, where it is kept in the church of San Domenico. For her theological writings, especially the Dialogue, she was given the rare honor of being named a Doctor of the Church.

Image: Giovanni di Paolo, Disputation of St Catherine before the Pope at Avignon, c. 1460 (Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid) -- with thanks to the excellent Web Gallery of Art

Egarr's Take on Handel

Handel, Organ Concertos, op. 4, Richard Egarr, Academy of Ancient Music (released February 12, 2008) Harmonia Mundi HMU 807446

Richard Egarr's tenure with the Academy of Ancient Music has launched an interesting series of new Handel recordings, beginning with last year's op. 3 concerti grossi. The next installment brings together the six organ concerti of op. 4, brilliant examples of Handel's dazzling virtuosity at the organ, which are rarely performed, at least in my recent experience. One might hear them occasionally in a church context, where there happens to be an orchestra gathered near a pipe organ. As this recording shows, however, that is somewhat inappropriate, since Handel wrote most of his organ concerti for himself to perform in concert settings, such as during intermissions of his oratorios. He likely played on a smaller chamber organ that could be moved into place without too much hassle. That is the sort of instrument, built by British maker Robin Jennings, played by Richard Egarr on this recent release.

Ever concerned with recreating, as much as possible, the conditions of Handel's London, Egarr had the instrument tuned to what is called Early English Organ temperament. This makes for some hair-raising chromatic excursions. Happily, to my ear, Egarr ornaments intensely and thickly, modeled on the example of an 18th-century performance of two of the op. 4 concerti, actually "recorded" on a cylinder in an 18th-century barrel organ. Even less to the taste of someone with set notions about these concerti, Egarr has put his stamp on these performances with some unusual transcription choices. This includes having William Carter's Baroque guitar provide continuo underpinning in no. 5 and refashioning no. 6 with reference to its original instrumentation for lute and harp, including adding an archlute part created by William Carter for this disc (Handel's lute part having been lost) and removing the recorder parts from the orchestra.

Egarr's playing is as reliable and stylistically appropriate as it ever was, far from what one could call flashy, which is not to say uninteresting. The playing of the Academy of Ancient Music is beautifully scaled to the size of the small organ. Lead violin Pavlo Beznosiuk, stepping into Andrew Manze's shoes, and cellist Catherine Jones have admirable turns in the concertino group with Egarr on the third concerto. The good news is that, even if you already own recordings of all or some of these concerti, this one is unusual enough to find its own place on your shelf.

In Brief

Here is your regular Sunday selection of links to good things in Blogville and Beyond.

• Apparently, with the computers, one can make Charlie Rose interview himself. About advances in technology. Greg Allen has the video. [greg.org]


• A great look at the art of the opera prompter. [Wall Street Journal]


• This week's episode (Succession) of 30 Rock, the funniest show on television, makes extensive and hilarious reference to Miloš Forman's film (on Peter Shaffer's play) Amadeus. [30 Rock]


• Molly Sheridan has taken the blog plunge and is now hosted by ArtsJournal. [Mind the Gap]


• Polish pianist Krystian Zimerman made a point of mentioning the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay during his last recital in the area. Jessica Duchen says the Zimerman told her he would not be returning to the United States "until the Iraq situation is sorted." [PIANIST Magazine]


• Gert has links to everything -- EVERYTHING! -- related to the premiere of Harrison Birtwhistle's The Minotaur. [Mad Musings of Me]


• Via greg.org, artist Olafur Eliasson and his studio have a blog. [Spatial Vibration]