Texte paru dans: / Appeared in: |
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| Warmly recommended |
Outil de traduction ~ (Très approximatif) |
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Reviewer: Huntley
Dent
Bach is too monumental for any
single performer to change our ideas about him, even to the extent that
Glenn Gould once did. Gould added another stylistic option for keyboard
performance, while today, faced with many options, a performer makes
personal choices and carries them out well or not so well. Deep-dyed Bach
enthusiasts will probably always prefer the harpsichord over the piano,
despite Gould’s inroads so long ago, but pianists count on an audience who
want to hear the unique abilities of a modern concert grand applied to music
history’s greatest composer.
Blechacz, who swept all the
major prizes as well as the gold medal in the 2005 International Chopin
Competition, is now 32, and although he has nodded toward his Polish
birthright with recordings of Chopin and Szymanowski, his roots in Bach run
deep. He began as an organist early in his studies before turning to the
piano, and for several years, we’re told, he played organ at the local
church in his village of Nakło nad Notecią. Not that his clear, spirited,
lightly pedaled approach to the works programmed here gives any audible
evidence of that part of his background.
It’s hard to find a pianist
who doesn’t revere Bach, and on disc the major stylistic choice pertains to
how much advantage a pianist wants to take of the piano’s wealth of touch,
dynamics, and expression. On the current scene there are minimalists like
Igor Levit who keep the pianistic side to a minimum, outright
traditionalists like Maurizio Pollini and Piotr Anderszewski who imbue Bach
with as much pianistic potential as they would in Chopin, and moderates like
Murray Perahia who allow some pianistic gestures to blend into the
chasteness of “pure” Bach. Perahia (on Sony) presents a good comparison in the ever-popular Italian Concerto, where tutti passages of fuller harmony stand in for an instrumental ensemble, in contrast to sparer solo lines. In the first movement Blechacz offers a stronger distinction between the two modes than Perahia. His embellishments are quicker and more bravura than Perahia’s discreet ones, like lightly arpeggiated bass notes. Both pianists largely avoid any pedal, with Blechacz using more point and attack in his touch, Perahia more warmth—he also benefits from a fuller, more relaxed piano sound. We’re dealing with two exceptional pianists, so these differences don’t move the world. The lovely Andante tests how espressivo a pianist thinks Bach should be. Since these are two noted Chopin interpreters, it’s not surprising that Perahia and Blechacz are both masters of the lyric line, but a slight give-and-take in phrasing is as far as Perahia is willing to go, where Blechacz adds affetuoso touches that purists would reject, such as the insertion of unmarked pianissimos to elicit more expression. Agree or disagree, his playing is very beautiful, and for me, Perahia sounds a bit stiff by comparison. In the Presto finale Blechacz shows us how he can flick at expressive details while moving ahead at top speed, while Perahia’s game plan is to maintain perfect evenness of dynamics and touch, which is more harpsichord-like, although he makes no other concessions to Bach’s instrument.
Anderszewski (on Erato) is
germane in the Partitas, since he and Blechcz both play Nos. 1 and 3; Levit
has recorded all six (Sony). I concentrated first on the Fantasia that
begins No. 3, where Blechacz was the boldest, presenting strong contrasts
when the thematic weight shifted from right to left hand. Levit’s technique
is as smoothly unvarying as a machine’s, for me not a plus—you can jump
randomly to any measure and hear exactly the same speed, dynamic, and touch.
Who cares? Anderszewski emerges as the most mature musician because he finds
more nuance and variety throughout, and I happen to like his pianistic
latitude in things such as dynamics. These general descriptions hold true in
the whole of both Partitas, and even though Anderszewski maintains my
interest the most, Blechacz’s readings aren’t nearly as externalized as
Levit’s. He is very expressive in the dances without rising (yet) to
Anderszewski’s remarkable level. A good test sample would be his dramatic,
propulsive way with the Courante of Partita No. 3, which will strike you
either as dashing or overly boisterous. In the Fantasia and Fugue in A Minor (which has few recordings by prominent pianists, not even Gould), the performer is tested first by the 10 bars of naked chords in the Fantasia, taking less than a minute, where he is supposed to explore imaginatively the implications of dissonance and harmony in them, followed by a driven fugue that is the longest Bach wrote outside The Art of Fugue. For comparison I couldn’t resist turning to Sviatoslav Richter in what appears to be his only recording, from Moscow in 1948. But instead of an imaginative treatment of the Fantasia, Richter offers only a string of mundane arpeggios, followed by a virtuosic reading of the Fugue. Blechacz offers a full-fledged improvisation with prominent flourishes that all but obscure the chords except as a bass line. His Fugue, even faster than Richter’s but just as pianistic, is Baroque pyrotechnics in every way.
There are
countless more details that could be described, but I wanted to convey the
general feeling and tone of Blechacz’s Bach so that potential buyers know
what to expect. Nothing perverse or eccentric happens here, and if there is
a Romantic slant, it might be heard in the final piece, Myra Hess’s
arrangement of Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring, which is reverently played, for
all the world as if Bach was a religious composer (HIPsters beware) who
would have smiled upon Liszt (probably not). Warmly recommended. | |
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