Various Composers - 'Hommage Au Piano' Piano Music [Berthold]Here's a name that's not very familiar at all, Beate Berthold is German, and only made a very few recordings, i don't know what happened to her, she made this disc in 1993.
I found this disc in a second-hand shop in London, i love these piano recitals that have short pieces by lots of different Composers, my only gripe with this disc is that there's too many Chopin waltzes on it, something instead from Ravel and Brahms, or even Scriabin would have made the disc complete.
There were quite a number of pieces i liked very much indeed equally, tracks 1, 4, 7 & 11 were all superb, extremely satisfying, the Chopin nocturne was an inspired choice, but i feel the piece that really got inside me was track 4, the Schubert Impromptu [D899/3].
Well straight away i felt she played this Impromptu too fast, and too loud, and yet... i really feel there's new insights and wonders that unfold when playing it faster, and so i checked out some other Pianists with their timings,
Pires - 4:49
Schiff - 5:17
Uchida - 5:37
Berthold - 5:38
Gavrilov - 5:42
Brendel - 5:50 & 6:05
Perahia - 6:08
Barenboim - 6:24
Lupu - 6:28
Arrau - 6:32
My favourite is Brendel, 6 minutes seems a perfect speed, i've even just listened to the Pires Impromptu [an old Erato recording, not from her DG set], yes very fast, but still thrilling, not wrong sounding whatsoever, yes Berthold plays the opening too loud and slightly too fast, there should be a gentleness, an aching and longing there, even more so in the reprise of the opening [3:28], an extra gentleness and pathos would have sounded superb, but she takes it too literally, one lovely thing that she does do, is her constant right hand rippling is nicely audible, some Pianists play this too softly, i believe there are great benefits to playing it louder, i remember years ago Martin Roscoe playing it on the radio, rippling right hand louder than usual, what a revelation that was!, i now feel after this little 'search and discovery mission', that i'm better equipped to know what ingredients i like in my perfect Impromptu!.
Here's Krystian Zimerman playing this Schubert Impromptu on YouTube.
