Faure - Theme Et Variations [Perlemuter]This is a great little disc, Denon make some excellent albums, trouble is they're hidden away in the archives, or floating around on Ebay for huge prices, every know and then one of these Denon discs pop up for sale, and you've just got to snap them up, or they're gone forever, this recital is all French [a logical idea], and even though the title and the cover suggest a live event, i'm sure it isn't, there's no clapping at all, the only two gripes about the disc are, more music could have been recorded [only 52 minutes], and that would have been able to accommodate five French Composers in five works, maybe some Poulenc and Satie, a nicer mix would have been created.
Vlado Perlemuter is Russian, but i guess he's lived the greater part of his life in France [i always thought he was French], he died nearly ten years ago at 98 years of age, he recorded this disc in 1972 in Tokyo Japan, for it's age it's an amazing sound, it says it's a digital recording, and looking up history on Wikipedia, Denon indeed did invent a digital recorder in 1972, the sound is fantastic, like it could have been made yesterday, the photograph is excellent too, showing Perlemuter in action, an excellent use of a ground level shot, showing the underside of the piano, it gives real depth, and a sense of hugeness to the piano, the white lettering is also nicely placed, a great visual product.
Of all the four works on this disc, i was most impressed with the Faure work, i just love Piano Variations, and this is a really nice discovery for me, Faure is a first class piano Composer, his work consists of a theme and 11 variations, lasting 14 minutes, the individual variations are not cued separately, so here's the timings,
Here's Vlado Perlemuter playing Faure's Theme Et Variations on YouTube.
Theme - 0:00
Variation 1 - 1:55
Variation 2 - 2:51
Variation 3 - 3:43
Variation 4 - 4:26
Variation 5 - 5:42
Variation 6 - 6:26
Variation 7 - 7:49
Variation 8 - 8:40
Variation 9 - 9:59
Variation 10 - 11:16
Variation 11 - 12:25
and of course they correspond to the YouTube video below, for me it was Variation 6 that was the best of the bunch, lasting 1:23, and marked Molto Adagio, it starts with the right hand extremely high in the treble, plinking away down the keyboard [6:26-6:41], such a superb start, i love the extremes of the piano, that high treble comes back to haunt [6:57+], and slightly lower chimes out a breathtaking treble tune [7:13-7:28], and shoots back up to the extreme high for some more plinking [7:29+], it's over all too soon, but Faure gives us a lot of, well, 'variety' in his Variations, well worth getting to know deeply.
