Octo_Russ

Various Composers - 'Liebestraum' Piano Recital [Arrau] 

This is a lovely piano recital, with a nice variety of 12 pieces by 7 different Composers, with a whopping 79 minutes of music!, how's that for a well filled disc?, actually this was not recorded as a recital, but is taken from many different recordings, ranging from 1963-1989, and yet i'm surprised how much the sound is so consistent, listening to it blind i could not notice any difference between each piece sonically, i also listened to it on random / shuffle mode, and without looking at the track listing to determine what was playing, it was interesting / fun to guess the pieces, it was only the Schumann pieces that i was unfamiliar with.

Claudio Arrau was one of those last of the breed Pianists, from a time of old, a gentleman of the piano, like Horowitz, Rubinstein, and Bolet, born in Chile, and he died almost 20 years ago, but these pieces sound like he recorded them yesterday, this is one of those discs from Philips's Insignia series, very nice re-releases, with excellent photography [by Christian Steiner], and the lettering / info is neatly placed in a box, nicely bordered, a great little package.

The 3 pieces that really impressed me were tracks 2, 6 & 12, and here's a little synopsis of each piece,

2 Chopin - Nocturne 17, it was good to listen to this Nocturne today, so many recitals have Chopin's early Nocturnes on a recital, so it's a good choice to programme one that isn't quite so popular, there's some nice hesitations around [1:51], where Arrau lets the moment hang in the air in a lovely pause, nicely weighted, the way he caresses the tune is sublime, excellent emphasis on a double note [4:30], and a superb section with the main tune played in trills towards the end [4:52-5:55], well sustained, an extra special mention should be made of the coda, just so incredibly perfect in the high treble [6:27-7:02], in Arrau's hands it's a work of art.

6 Schubert - Impromptu 3, maybe a tad too staccato in the mid range, but Arrau can work this sheer magic in creating a higher intensity [1:45+ & 4:35+], the music isn't about keys and hands anymore, it's a spiritual entity, this really lifted me today.

12 Liszt - Harmonies Du Soir, one of the longest pieces on the disc, and one that i really need to familiarize myself with more, and it was a joy to get to know this work more, i really do forget how wonderful a creation it is, Liszt isn't one of my favourite Composers, and i need to re-assess him now, this piece is a real 'fantasy', full of excellent variety, those arpeggio trills are just dynamite! in Arrau's hands [1:30-2:06], so incredibly thrilling, i now love this piece!, and the superb treble stabs, while the left hand is hammering out chords in the bass is phenomenal [5:28-6:26], oh my gosh! Liszt / Arrau are a genius combination, this is so hair raising, this is my new favourite piece, it seems to have everything.