Brahms - Handel Variations [Arrau]

More Brahms!, this is from a rare three disc box set, i like Claudio Arrau, a wonderful interpreter, maybe a bit on the slow side, but someone who can find new colours and ways of seeing things, the Handel Variations along with Bach's Goldberg, are my very favourite Piano Variations, the Handel Variations are subjected to almost every conceivable idea you can squeeze out of the theme, it's a mesmerizing 29 minutes from Arrau.

Claudio Arrau was born in Chile in 1903, and died in 1991, he had long and distinguished career, highly regarded as a musical aristocrat, later in his career he began to slow his interpretations down slightly, there's a maturity about his interpretations, though sometimes you want a bit more fire.

The booklet / front cover show Arrau in thoughtful poses [photos by Christian Steiner], these discs come from a time when Arrau's discs were re-issued in these box sets, he had others for Schubert, Debussy, Beethoven and Chopin etc, i'm not really interested in the Piano Sonatas, and all the works that are really desirable in this box set could actually fit on one disc, but still it's a great set to own.

On this listen i really felt an affinity with the Theme, and variations 1, 6-7, 12, 14, 17-18, 22 & 25, and i would like to give a short synopsis of why each of these variations caught my attention,

Theme [0:00-1:19], a slow and sure noble theme, a nice trill on the end of almost everything, straight away you can just feel the endless variety that can be gleaned from such a theme.

Variation 1 [1:19-2:18], the first variation always sets the scene, and in closest proximity to the theme, you can see the change and juxtaposition more clearer, especially a faster variation after a slow theme, the high treble 'trills as frills' get more frequent as the variation continues.

Variation 6 [6:03-7:14], a very stoic variation, nice right hand treble chiming, and the left hand has a mini fugue going in the bass, really quite mesmerizing.
Variation 7 [7:14-7:51], so in contrast the seventh is bouncy, staccato rhythms that you can dance to, in contrast again the eighth is taken too fast and breaks up the vibe of the seventh.

Variation 12 [11:27-12:23], after a bass 'drum roll', the wheezy high voice of the twelfth is a nice contrast.
Variation 14 [14:11-14:57], after the slow and sombre thirteenth, it's good to hear the 'laugh your head off' fourteenth, full of gaiety and mischievous trills.

Variation 17 [16:17-16:52], lovely staccato plink plink in the treble right, with the very simple accompaniment two note plonk plonk in the bass right hand!, really sounds like this variation needs three hands with the middle rhythm added.
Variation 18 [16:52-17:46], by comparison the eighteenth sounds very orthodox, nice regular legato, nice use of the high treble to accentuate things.

Variation 22 [20:48-21:50], this sounds almost like a musical box in a way, nice high treble, sometimes the simplest variations can be the most profound.
Variation 25 [22:54-23:34], the final variation before the long fugue, and it's a barnstormer, there's the great feel that all the stops are pulled out for this one, in one last show of power.

And the winner is... i think the seventeenth, i guess a lot of people write off the Handel Variations, when people talk about solo piano variations, then it's always the Goldberg and the Diabelli that get mentioned, but the Handel is really just as good, and it clears the cobwebs away from what can be four square muddiness from Brahms, and Claudio Arrau's interpretation is enlightening and sparkling.

Here's Roman Rabinovich playing the middle variations 11 to 20 on YouTube, variation 17 is at 5:30.

Brahms - 4 Ballades [Dalberto]

This is a wonderful disc, i played this last month [2nd September 2010], and it's a disc i haven't had all that long, and already it's a treasured disc, and Brahms's piano music is becoming even more of an endearment, the early 4 Ballades are probably not his most popular piano pieces, but for me they're some of the very best Brahms, including his non solo piano works, there's a youthfulness about them, but also a yearning for something more mature, it beats the socks off his 3 Piano Sonatas.

Michel Dalberto is French, but records much more in the German repertoire, certainly Brahms and Schubert, and Mozart and Liszt too, the French repertoire is not so big, maybe some Debussy, he mainly has recorded for the Denon label.

I very much enjoyed Dalberto's take on Brahms's second Ballade, Dalberto has a fair sort of tempo to start off with, and it's the very opening [0:00-0:06] which seems a tad too fast / literal, there's poetry in those notes Michel!, he misses the very sublime 'shock / wonder' these notes can have as they first sing out of the keyboard, a little slower and weighted would have done wonders, however not too much should be made out of these six seconds, as the piece is excellent thereon [0:00-1:38], i love the notes at [0:24+], they're so touching, it's amazing what an effect a little phrase can have, also the little hesitations at [0:56 & 1:04] Dalberto does so well, the angry middle section is well done indeed [1:38-4:02], lots of nice tension, the return of the gentle opening is heavenly [4:02+], and the left hand closes the piece down with the main tune [5:43-6:59], with some really nice notes, that descend down into the nostalgic night, a truly beautiful creation, it's a pity that Brahms didn't write some Nocturnes.

Here's Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli playing the second Ballade on YouTube.

Schubert - Symphony 5 [Koopman-The Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra]

Schubert's Symphony 5 holds a special place in my heart, i look at Schubert as a fairly serious Composer, his Symphony 8 on this disc is in the Minor mode, it's dark and delicious, his Symphony 9 is exuberant, but still there's a mature seriousness there, but in at least the first movement of this Symphony, there's a lightness and a sprightliness of feeling that Haydn would have been proud of, there's a 'joy of life' to this movement which is contagious.

Handel - Water Music Suites [Gardiner-English Baroque Soloists]

For some reason Handel is really not on my radar as such, i don't find him a 'great' Composer, rather a good one, i admit his Concerto Grosso 6-Op6 is a marvel, but on the other end of the scale i hate the Messiah, his Water Music suites are maybe somewhere inbetween, certainly more towards liking them, but i still find them a hodge podge of individual pieces that don't really gel together, but then there are in fact singular moments of genius, but ultimately Handel isn't in the same league as Bach or Vivaldi.

Surprisingly this is the first time i've mentioned Handel in my Blog, and it's 273 days into the year!, it just goes to show how much he isn't in my life.

John Eliot Gardiner gives us the three Suites on this disc, but not in order 1, 2, 3, but rather 1, 3, 2, plus a couple

Chopin Piano Concerto 1 [Zimerman-Polish Festival Orchestra]

This is a lovely set of the Chopin Piano Concertos, Zimerman languishes in these recordings, in the end the two works can't be contained on a single disc, he spills over onto a second [but the price remains the same for a single disc, in a slimline case], Zimerman is also the conductor, and that means he has total artistic control over everything, and it shows in the final results, a truly superb engineered sound, the piano is to the fore, but not unduly so, a crystal clear piano sound, at times the gorgeous chimes of the piano take your breath away, one of the very best recorded piano sounds i've ever heard, slow and dreamy recordings.

Krystian Zimerman is of course Polish, born in 1956, he is now 53, i think this is one of the very last booklets to feature the big yellow DG banner, now they have smaller logos in the corner, a wise idea by DG, i like the booklet cover, Zimerman in action conducting.

I so much enjoyed the central Romance / Larghetto,

Here's Krystian Zimerman playing the second movement on YouTube, in an earlier recording.

Bellini - Soprano Opera Arias [Anderson/ Rescigno-Orchestre Philharmonique De Monte Carlo]

Here's a really nice Opera Arias recital, a disc dedicated to Bellini only, a great idea, there are too few dedicated to just this Composer, my only gripe with this disc is its somewhat short measure [54 minutes], an Aria or two could have been added from Norma, especially the famous one.

June Anderson is American, now 57 years old, she is mainly associated with the Bel Canto repertoire, i really like the booklet cover, a soft focus shot [by Steve Bicknell], vague background, and some well chosen lettering.

Here's Antonella Bandelli singing the Beatrice di Tenda aria on YouTube.

Sibelius - Violin Concerto [Yang/ Chistiakov-Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra]

Here's another new disc that i acquired recently, i believe i got it from some seller on Ebay from the Far East, and here's the thing, if i search for Classical Artists in the Far East [mainly Japan], a whole ton of them come up that aren't available in the West [i'm from England], sure we have Japanese and Korean Artists very popular in the West, but there's so many that are big in Asia, but unknown where i am, and why?, that's why Ebay is such a great venture, every now and again a really desirable disc becomes available from one of these sellers, i always search under 'violin' every now and again to see what it churns up.

So yet another Sibelius Violin Concerto, i just counted 15 versions of this work in my library, but there's always room for another, hehe, come to think of it i want to get the Vilde Frang disc, the booklet cover pic [by Jeng-Jin Ko], is really good, a very nice pose with the violin in hand.

Sung-Sic Yang is unknown to me, and i can't find anything on the internet about him, except that he is South Korean, this is what i mean about 'unknown to the West, but well known in Asia' syndrome!.

Again i was taken aback by the slow second movement, the recording is slightly boxy, and Yang's violin sounds deep and rich, almost halfway to sounding like a viola at times!, there's three parts i especially noticed this time, when the orchestra drones in with forte [3:03+], and the trumpets blast their fanfares three times [3:17, 3:35 & 3:43], a really lovely moment, and more towards the end, where the violin goes up into the treble stratosphere [4:51+], like a high wire trapeze artist climbing the ladder, and starts doing high trills / thrills [4:59+], and reaches a superb zenith [5:11], and after that Yang slowly floats downward and becomes lost in the orchestra, a short time later Yang does the same again, he starts climbing again [6:11+], and a superb zenith is reached again [6:37], these are really teasing, a good tremendous musical rush, Sibelius's Violin Concerto is a genius of a creation.

Here's Vadim Repin playing the second movement on YouTube, with Valery Gergiev conducting, live from the London Proms.