Search - Mozart, Brahms, Bach :: Piano Concerto / Variations / Chaconne

An indivualistic Interpretation

S. TSALAVOUTAS | Athens, Kifisia Greece | 04/09/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I am no expert in classical music but I've fallen in love with some pieces and one of them is Bach's Chaconne from Partitas and Sonatas for solo violin. This piece has been transcribed many times, for guitar by Segovia, orchestra by Alfredo Casella and Stokovski among others. It has also been transcribed for piano by Busoni and Michelangeli plays the piece according to this transcription. I have been familiar with the Chaconne and I have learned to love it from the guitar of Narciso Yeppes, but I' ve listened to it from many other versions as well. Few times have I listened to a version that does not reach sublimity and this is not the case with Michelangeli, to be sure. Yet the man at some point seems to me to be speeding as if he were driving his Ferrari at a barbarous speed conflating chords and betraying the ethos of this solemn masterpiece. At other points he seems to slow down and reveal the numinous, mystical quality of the music. Comparing Michelangeli with Evgeny Kissin's performance of the same transcription which seems to be more orthodox or conventional I sense Michellangeli's boisterous personality playing a great part in his performance. My objection (if I can be excused for this) is that such a masterpiece as Chaconne has no need of the mark of individuality to reach the hights of the sublime, on the contrary the performer should surrender to the ethos of the eternal form and let it shine through.

Overall this is a very beautiful collection with pieces that demand virtuosity and Michelangeli is a master at that."

Not the one to buy

Discophage | France | 02/15/2007

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Let me make it clear that I do not have this particular release. What I have (had) is an earlier, and first CD release of the same material, on an Italian EMI Studio (Michelangeli plays J.S. Bach Partita No 2 BWV 1004; Brahms Variations on a Paganini Theme op 35; Mozart Concerto No 15 K450 (EMI)). What appeared on the Italian release was akin to wilful deceit. Only a 1968 copyright date was given, in face of which one was dismayed to hear a hollow and distant sound. Well, no wonder: the Bach/Busoni and Brahms were actually among Michelangeli's first recordings (the Brahms Paganini Variations by the way is not the complete thing, but Michelangeli's own selection and reordering of 25 out of the 28), dating from 1948, and the Mozart was made in 1951. I guess the 1968 copyright referred to the date of the transfer from the original 78rpms to tape; which I suppose were used in turn for this initial CD release, rather than going from the original shellacs - and those transfers were fairly sloppy too, as the two solo items were cut at a quarter-tone too low...



This may have been improved on the new reissue, and maybe the liner notes give more correct information about recording dates as well (I've seen the disc, in shrink wrap, and saw that this deceitful 1968 copyright date was still on the back cover), but whatever that may be, this is still not the best way to acquire this particular material, as the coupling of the two solo pieces and the concerto has no coherence. Instead, I recommend the EMI Reference CD issue of Michelangeli's near complete early solo recordings (CDH 7 64490 2, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (Références) - see my review), with the same magisterial readings of Bach/Busoni and Brahms plus a marvellously brash and youthful Beethoven sonata no. 3, two Scarlatti sonatas and encore pieces by Grieg, Mompou, Albeniz and Granados - and pitch-right reproduction. As for the Mozart, it has also been reissued on an EMI References CDH 7 63819 2 with the much more palatable coupling of Mozart's piano concertos no. 13 and 23 conducted by Franco Caracciolo in 1953 (Mozart: Piano Concerti 13, 15, 23). So unless you adamantly want the particular coupling of this Encore reissue...



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