Search - Brahms, Ravel, Schumann :: Recitals

Enlightening CD showing a different side of Arrau

Jeffrey Jones | Northern California, USA | 03/13/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Arrau was the dreamiest of bards. At times, it was like he had hands hewn from the wood of the Celtic Tree of Life. He could turn sound waves into fresh dripping paint. He could stop time. He could take an already grand work and expand its scope out to limitless dimensions, not merely by slowing it down but by filling that broader time-canvas with melting romanticism. But this is only one side of the Arrau on this CD under consideration. A listener who is after balanced and studious performances is advised to look elsewhere; passion abounds.



The first recital is Beethoven's Sonata Op. 57, Brahms' Handel Variations, and Ravel's Gaspard de la Nuit (from 1959); the second is Schumann's Fantasy, Op. 17 and Liszt's Sonata in B minor (from 1963?), followed by Liszt's Mephisto Waltz No. 1 (from 1971?). These are all live recordings from a Swiss-Italian radio station's archives, and the production team appears to be all Italian. The liner notes by Piero Rattalino are hilariously effusive and very well translated, particularly a two-page theoretical conversation between Arrau and a fictional master teacher who spends his nights obsessively mulling over old scores, researching what metronome markings Beethoven's contemporaries gave to the opening of the Appassionata. The production quality is on the whole acceptable, except that for some reason, Ravel's Scarbo is interposed, complete with applause, before Le Gibet, which is actually the middle movement of Gaspard de la Nuit. Oops!



The sound is what you might expect from a radio station; a bit muddy and over-resonant. Perhaps Arrau overpedaled, but in a large hall, sometimes any pedal can sound like too much if it is not miked well. The second disc has some very bad sonic problems, with loud passionate moments consistently turning into painful garbage noise; this alone accounts for the four stars instead of five.



It's a pity, because the best performances in this set are the pieces affected by the sonic problems. The Schumann Fantasy is tremendous, transportive, otherworldly. Arrau made me believe this was the greatest work of history's most imaginative composer. Then the Liszt Sonata, in turn, made me believe that it was the greatest work of history's greatest composer - not so fervent as the Schumann, perhaps, but in the end, even more fulfilling. He might lack the spit-shine of a brilliant modern pianist like Yundi Li, but the enormity of Arrau's conceptions, combined with the enthusiastic passion that Arrau could summon in a live performance, make for a great experience."