Brahms - Paganini Variations [Tomassi] 

Here's the other half of this recital i played last month [15th March 2011], not quite as scintillating as her Chopin Etudes, but wonderful nevertheless, it's quite audacious to couple these two works together, but they make a great coupling, she's inventive, colourful, and well... variable too!.

Giorgia Tomassi is Italian, still quite unknown, this is one of those 'Debut' EMI discs, but i feel it was only ever introduced to the Italian market, the booklet starts off in Italian, which says something about the market it was aimed for, the booklet front cover photograph is by Gian Luca Liverani, a nice shot of Tomassi in a reflective pose, notice those hands all splayed out!, ready to attack those keys.

Well the Paganini Variations which impressed me the most from Tomassi were, 2-4, 8 & 11-12 from the First Book, and 4, 6 & 12 from the Second Book, the most impressive of all were 11 from Book One, and 6 from Book Two, and i would like to give a synopsis of these two pieces,

Variation 11 [Book One], must be my favourite variation, it's like the sound of church bells chiming away gently, Tomassi plays this quite fast, a degree of restraint would heighten the beauty of it, just hanging on certain notes a shade longer to create bliss, i like the way she emphasizes the high treble notes [0:20].

Variation 6 [Book Two], in contrast this variation is loud and short [20 seconds], it sounds like Saint-Saens 'kangaroos' from his Carnival of the Animals, lots of leaps up and down the piano, with whoops of emphasis at the height of the treble extremities, a lovely virtuoso burst from Tomassi.

Loads of flavours and scents of all colours and tastes here for everyone to enjoy, i'm loving these variations.

Here's Olaf John Laneri playing Variation 11 / Book One [starts 7:17], and Variation 6 / Book Two [starts 3:16] on YouTube.

Beethoven - Piano Concerto 5 [Arrau/ Davis-Staatstkapelle Dresden] 

It's so good to dip into this wonderful box set of Beethoven Piano Concertos again, last month i played the Third Concerto [14th March 2011], and now i turn my ears toward the Fifth, and it's my most favourite of all, and not just Beethoven.

Claudio Arrau was a Chilean Pianist, born in 1903, over a hundred years ago, he passed away in 1991, the Fifth Concerto was recorded in 1984, the booklet front cover photo is by Christian Steiner, a nice pic of Arrau in a thoughtful pose, nice lettering too.

I'm so familiar with this Concerto, that it's easy for it to just wash over me, and just lay back and bask in its glow, i guess the last movement is a thrilling culmination to everything that's gone before, a chance for Beethoven to let his hair down in a movement of sheer joy and onward forward momentum, scored in Beethoven 'Heroic' key of E Flat Major, but rather than serious heroics, to me it sounds like Beethoven laughing his head off with joy!, it's also hard to pinpoint exact parts of this movement to highlight, the piece is in Rondo form, which means its themes trundle round again and again without seemingly a break, it's hard to know where to jump on, or if you're deep into the work, where to jump off!,  

Here's Claudio Arrau playing the third movement on YouTube, it starts at 3:42, and Colin Davis is conducting.

Scriabin - Piano Music [Lisovskaya] 

I'm not sure where i bought this disc, but one look at the cover, and i had to get it!, a young woman draped over a piano, with plain colour tones of brown and black, a superb photogenic shot [by Karen Kartashian], a nice shot of angles and perspective, well done to BIS for this recital.

Sophia Lisovskaya is Russian, born in 1976, she's now 34, she made this recording in 2000, a strange recital of bits and bobs of Scriabin, a whole Sonata, Ten of the 24 Preludes Op11, and short pieces here and there, neither one of something, nor two of something else, but it's a great introduction to the piano world of Scriabin, and a nice addition to my own Scriabin library.

In playing the whole of this recital today, i enjoyed tracks 4, 10, 12, 15 & 18 the most, and i was especially enchanted by track 15, the Prelude Op16/1, it reminds me of Satie in a way, it's a rather sad little piece, almost Scriabin's 'Raindrop Prelude', i can just imagine the scene with someone longingly looking out the window, with raindrops trickling down, the left hand plays a bass intro, but it's the right hand treble that steals your heart away [0:12], yes it's like a Gymnopedie, and the treble tune is truly glorious, so aching and bewitching, and there's a great emphasis on the first note when the essence of the little tune is repeated [0:29], a superb emphasis that takes my breath away, the development of the tune is also so incredible, mid and upper keyboard play a little duet, lovely bell tolling sounds in the treble [0:45], the opening right hand treble is repeated [1:12], and it's gorgeous to hear this again, and there's a section where the first beat of every bar in the treble is accentuated to a dreamy effect [1:44-2:11], it rises and falls in expression, with a zenith in the high treble at [1:58], before it slowly comes down to earth again, Scriabin certainly knows how to weave a tune around your heart!. 

Here's young Miss Cristina Lan playing the Prelude Op15/1 on YouTube, a little bit too quick, and not quite enough emphasis on those high treble notes, but incredible nonetheless.

Bach - Goldberg Variations [Uys] 

This is another disc i enjoyed so much, this is this discs first outing, and there's good and bad, but the good wins the day, i'm so thankful that i have several Pianists to enlighten me on these phenomenal variations, and Tessa Uys adds to that, i saw this disc on Ebay, going fairly cheap, so why not?, the dedication in gold pen on the front would be a bonus if it was only a generic message and signature, but it doesn't really bother me, i guess Ian and Pat just didn't feel the way i do about these discs!.

Tessa Uys [not sure how to pronounce it, maybe 'oo-ees'], was born in South Africa, and this disc was recorded in 2000, the front booklet cover is very nice, Tessa wearing a long flowing ballgown, the lettering is sparse.

So onto the bad points, first of all it's issued on two discs instead of one, roughly 84 minutes of music, so she's fairly slow, my two benchmark recordings are Schiff [72 minutes] and Perahia [74 minutes], but she doesn't sound real slow, just quite thoughtful here and there, usually two discs mean more expense, but i got this for a bargain on Ebay, so it wasn't an issue for me, the recording is not that great considering it's made in 2000, on a South African label, there's a degree of 'analogue' hiss on the recording, and even though this wouldn't be a problem usually, it's the way that the recording has been spliced together, there can be gaps created between some of the variations, and they use 'silence' to fill some of those gaps, rather than 'analogue' hiss, so the end of one variation and the beginning of the next can go, hiss-silence-hiss!, it's so blatantly obvious at points that it's recorded in takes, and all glued together in the studio, it can be a little offputting, and it just shows unprofessionalism by the record company.

So i guess on to the good points, and they're in the interpretation of the music itself, my favourite variations on this listen were 1, 5, 14, 20 & 29, and i'd like to give a little synopsis of each,

Variation 1 - after the slow and quiet Aria theme, the first variation can shock you with surprise, with its invention and rhythm, Uys plays this with excitement.
Variation 5 - this is quite a virtuoso study, full of jagged rhythms, trills all over the keyboard, Uys really does hit her virtuoso stride with this one.
Variation 14 - bass trills, and staggered slashing figures down the keyboard, and lots of treble trills too, a real powerhouse of invention and interest.
Variation 20 - played with understatement at first, with staccato trills, and runs up and down the keyboard.
Variation 29 - very grandiose chords at first, played stiffly, but then there's these runs that sound like a harpsichordist, this is the one variation that Uys sounds as if it's not played on a piano anymore, not my favourite variation, and yet considering how Uys plays it, it's certainly the most individual she plays, plus it's opened up to me the things you can do with this variation, she takes her time over it, but it doesn't sound slow or dragging, just 'stammering' really, so very thrilling.

Here's Glenn Gould playing variation 29 on YouTube.

Bruckner - Symphony 4 [Chailly-Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra] 

Just a word about the booklet / back insert, of course they don't match, this is another couple of discs i've amalgamated into a slimline case [Chailly & Barenboim], Bruckner's Fourth probably remains my most favourite Symphony of his, but others are catching up, and it was good to listen to this again today.

Riccardo Chailly is Italian, now 58 years of age, he made this recording in 1990, the booklet cover [though not actually belonging to this disc] is excellent, taken from Barenboim's Teldec cycle of the complete Symphonies, each shows a planet, and the Fourth shows planet Earth, as if this Symphony is the 'home' Symphony, or the one everyone feels at most 'home' with, or am i reading something into it?, certainly it's his most popular Symphony, it shows the Earth in all its marbled ball glory, the lettering is very good, with the number '4' in pride of place at the top centrally, i really do like the visuals for Barenboim's cycle.

This is yet another opening movement excitement for me, i just love the opening melee of murmuring / throbbing low strings, over which a horn plays a lonely solo [0:00-0:48], what a lovely atmospheric way to start a Symphony, i like the way Bruckner has these 'brass explosions' all over the place [1:56, 4:06 & 8:24], the horns seem to have a prominent place in Bruckner's world, and it's the solo horn that brings the beginning back again, over those throbbing strings [12:05-12:41], but this time a solo flute floats in to take the glory, a rare thing for Bruckner, and more brass fireworks [13:45, 16:00 & 16:57], especially loud, with the violins frantically accompanying, a movement of real power and atmosphere.

Here's Gunter Wand conducting the first movement on YouTube.

Mahler - Symphony 4 [Ameling/Previn-Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra] 

These 'Studio Plus' recordings by EMI are marvelous, what an inspired series it is, i have a number of the very best issues, and yet i still don't know the full catalogue of these discs, not long ago i found this disc on Ebay, i've never seen this disc before, and snapped it up pretty quick, and i haven't seen another copy since, how many more wonderful discs in this series are lurking waiting for me to discover?. 

Andre Previn is almost 82 now, the Symphony was recorded in 1978, it shows a young Mr Previn, close up shot very very nicely laid out, those coloured boxes for the lettering are great, and each one of these issues in this series have a colour scheme, this one is yellow, sandwiched between blue, one of the very best in this series. 

Mahler's Fourth Symphony was the first Mahler Symphony that i got to know, with a cassette tape by Karajan / Mathis on DG, and i would certainly recommend this as a starting point for anyone getting into Mahler, Andre Previn is not a Mahlerite, and apart from the Fifth Symphony, i don't think he has tackled any other Mahler recording, on this disc is Elly Ameling in the fourth movement, she's quite a grown up sounding Soprano, and doesn't quite have that childlike view of heaven. 

For me the long [23 minutes here] beautiful slow third movement is my favourite, however, it was the first movement which affected me the most this time, and just lately i've had a thing about being really caught 'off guard' with first movements, it's as if i just wasn't expecting the thing to grab me by the throat right from the start, 

Here's Leonard Bernstein conducting the first movement on YouTube.