Search - Rameau, Lewin :: If I Were a Bird: A Piano Aviary

Brilliant and Creative Recording!

Jason Present | USA | 04/23/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is one of the best played, most beautifully recorded piano recording I have heard in ages, with a brilliantly creative program and a booklet that is a virtual work of art.



Michael Lewin has created a hugely imaginative program- 20 pieces inspired by birds, spanning over 300 years. It is an ingenious concept, and even the most seasoned pianophile will find discoveries galore. All the music is attractive and accessible, and should easily arrest the attention of serious classical musical lovers, bird fanciers, and music fans in general.



Recorded at the famous Skywalker Sound studios, it was engineered and produced by a Grammy-award winning team. The piano sound is luscious and plummy, with huge dynamic range and notable warmth and color.



Dorian Records seems to have been reborn like the Phoenix- one of the few birds not included!- and have launched their new relationship with Lewin in high style. The book is 25 pages, on high-stock paper, with historic Audobon illustrations of each bird. Lewin contributed touching, personal and lengthy program notes. Each piece and composer is discussed, with bon mots, musicological tidbits and wide-ranging commentary. One can spend a pleasant hour with this booklet alone, before the music even begins!



From the many Baroque works featuring birds, Rameau's "Gathering of the Birds" and Daquin's "Cuckoo" are offered. After hearing Lewin's brilliant and highly-praised Scarlatti recording, his crystal-clear fingerwork, wit and stylistic surety come as no surprise. The charming "Woodbird's Delight" by Golden Age pianist Josef Hoffman, is a charming and scintillating discovery. The performance of the Griffes "White Peacock" is masterful, an essay in exotic colors and elastic rhythms. It is far better than Lewin's performance in the Naxos complete Griffes discs, in which he received boxy recorded sound and a clunky piano. The American Steinway for this recording has a gigantic scope of color and dynamics. MacDowell's "Humming Bird" is a gossamer delight, and the Messiaen's "Dove" a perfect choice from this French master of bird pieces. The famous "Maiden and the Nightingale" by Granados receives a ravishing performance, ultra-romantic and sexy, as good as any I've ever heard. Same for the popular "Little Bird" of Grieg. The lark is represented twice- by the brilliant Glinka-Balakirev transcription and the rarely-done Leschetizky "Two Larks." The latter surely deserves once again to be a popular encore piece. Lewin reveals a great sense of pianistic history and tradition in this recording- reviving Romantic music and presenting with a sense of style that we seldom encounter from our "modern" pianists. Ravel's "Sad Birds" has a a rare melancholy, and Schumann's profound and enigmatic "Prophet Bird" is memorable and deeply philosphical. Cyril Scott's "Water Wagtail" was unknown to me- it is lovely, a light and flowing period piece. It is great to hear Siloti's faithful transcription of "The Swan", once favored by Rachmaninoff, rather than the excessively florid and chromatic Godowsky transcription that is now almost exclusively played. And the Alabieff-Liszt "Nightingale" is surely one of Liszt's greatest song transcriptions- why is it so neglected? Guion's virtuoso arrangement of "Turkey in the Straw" is a tremendous bit of pianistic Americana that I have never heard before. Many of these works seem to be first recordings, although there is no indication in the booklet about this. Henselt's "If I Were a Bird", which lent the disc its title, was also once a favored encore of the great pianists. Ferociously difficult, Lewin tosses off its crossed hands passagework and dangerous jumps with deceptive ease. The "Chinese Nightingale" of Walter Niemann is another discovery, a beguiling tone picture by a composer I've never before encountered. Adolf Jensen apparently wrote a great deal of piano music- his lyrical "Little Wood Bird", one of my favorite pieces on this disc, makes me want to hear more. The final work is Guido Agosti's spectaular mind-boggling transcription of 3 pieces from the "Firebird Suite." Here Lewin challenges an entire orchestra, creating miracles of color and energy. Why do pianists always play "Petrouchka" when this composer-sanctioned arrangement exists? This is tailor-made for virtuoso pianists seeking a real challenge, and would surely create a sensation on stage. Lewin seems to have inexhaustible wells of power, coupled to staggering panache and imagination. Bravo!



On every level, this disc is a triumph. It establishes Michael Lewin as one of our supreme pianists, in a classy presentation of ingenious programming. I hope this will be the first of many recordings he does on Dorian."