Octo_Russ

Brahms - 6 Klavierstucke Op118 [Magnan] 

Here's a new Brahms disc in my collection, i forget where i got this, but it's good to try a new Artist, and this disc has got some excellent works on it, the Handel Variations are my favourite Brahms solo piano, and it was good to also familiarize myself with his book of six piano pieces again.

Gisele Magnan is new to me, and there is a dearth of information about her, only that she is French, i'm always on the lookout for a new superb Brahms recital, and visually this fits the bill, with roughly a third of a left side strip as a picture [by Stephane Ouzounoff], it creates a tall upright picture, that has consistent interest from top to bottom, the hands are well placed [and of course being a Pianist, they're the tools of the trade], it's a fantastic sharp picture, the rest of the booklet is quite sparse, cream coloured with an oval shape for the works lettering, this recording was made in 1995.

Gisele Magnan is quite distinctive, she does things differently, not necessarily better, but different and refreshing, she doesn't pull everything off, and even her 'failures' are interesting and thoughtful!, she plays somewhat extreme speeds, the final Intermezzo of the six [Op118/6] is played really slow, and yet it's so interesting, she really makes something new out of it, lovely colours on the piano, the two pieces i loved here are 2 & 5, the two slow 'bookends' of the work, and it's the first one Op118/2 that is the darling, that she really does play a shade too fast, the beauties need to coalesce to really take effect, she plays it fairly loud-ish, full of passion and drama, the more i listen to it, the more i'm impressed with her colours, and the way she can eke out sonorities that sound just right from the keys, especially at the beginning it needs a gentleness, a swoon to it, and yet i can see how her approach has its benefits, i like the way she treats the left hand bass line as not mere accompaniment to the more famous 'steal the glory' right hand melody, but it's rhythms become part of the tune, for me this is her noticeable great talent, left and right hand aren't a team of twins parroting from the same page, but... neither are they strangers doing their own thing, they're more like yin and yang, opposites that balance each other out, you can hear their separate voicings to superb effect, her straightforward matter of fact start, does actually work wonders after a while, there's a short passage near the beginning which is a good example, where the right hand melody becomes more intense, and goes up the keyboard, while the bass also does the same [1:08-1:30], it's like the left hand fills the gaps which the right hand misses!, it's so hard to explain, matter of fact-ness is the order of the day, but with the left hand bass so rhythmically precise, there's a great vibe to the whole thing, right in the middle there's a slow golden refrain [2:56-3:29], taken slow and careful, it really works!, and the coda of sorts has a final farewell-ness to it [5:09+], i really like her a lot already!, a disc i want to get to know some more, and i feel that i've really plumbed the depths in, with my feelings about the piece here.

Here's Elena Kuschnerova playing the Op118/2 Intermezzo on YouTube, the timings are extremely similar, and so it's easy to follow along with the timings above.