Search - Feruccio Busoni, Cesar Franck, Franz Liszt :: Rubinstein plays Liszt Sonata in Bm, Franck Prelude Chorale & Fugue, Bach-Busoni Chacone (The Rubinstein Collection)

Superbly controlled and elegant - maybe a touch too much so

Discophage | France | 08/11/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Franz Liszt wasn't at the core of Rubinstein's repertoire. Sure, the Polish pianist did the 1st piano concerto, and twice at that (you can find them in Bmg's Rubinstein Collection, Vol. 32 and Rubinstein Collection, Vol. 53), but that's a warhorse that every concert pianist does - and Rubinstein apparently never recorded its pendant, the 2nd piano concerto. There is also a CD (Rubinstein Collection, Vol. 31) collecting all his miscellaneous Liszt pieces - more warhorses : Funérailles, Valse oubliée, Mephisto-Waltz, Liebesträume, Consolation 3, two Hungarian Rhapsodies - all mono recordings from the early 50s. Maybe his technique simply wasn't up to the daunting challenges posed by the Etudes d'exécution transcendantes and similar virtuosic works (he never did Chopin's etudes either), or maybe Rubinstein didn't feel attuned to the spirit of Liszt's music.



So it is all the more surprising to seem him tackling this great mammoth composition, the Pïano Sonata, in 1965, although one can fear a lack of kinship with the lisztian idiom.



Well, there is a lot to admire in Rubinstein's reading. At the beginning, you might get the impression that Rubinstein is underpowered, especially if, as myself, you hear this recording immediately after Gilels' live 1961 recording (apparently it cannot be found anymore in its first Chant du Monde CD release, but is now available as Chopin: Sonatas for piano No2; Liszt: Sonata for piano in Bm) or Horowitz' 1977 remake (Liszt: Sonata In B/Ballade No.2/Consolation No.3/Funérailles/Mephisto Waltz No.1). But then there is no lack of power on the return of the dramatic section at 7:02, so maybe it took Rubinstein time to warm up to the piece on that recording day, or more likely he was just holding back in order not to shoot all his bolts at once (something I remarked also with Gilels studio recording done for RCA a few months before this one: Franz Schubert: Sonata in D,D.850, Op.53/Franz Liszt: Sonata in B Minor). Rubinstein shows no technical shortcoming that I can perceive, on the contrary: his octave scales and jumps in the first development section after the slow introduction are played with snap, and the pianist's digital fleetness and delicacy the right-hand filigree of the more lyrical passages is admirable (try 7:50 for instance). Admirable also is his fine and tasteful control of dynamics and his ability to clarify Liszt's complex textures, never blurring the left hand thanks to sparse pedalling. Overall he shows commendable accurateness in his realization of the score (it seems to go without saying, but many pianists take many liberties, of tempo, articulation, dynamics and what not), overall he doesn't fiddle around with tempos, except in a few spots where, like others, he is prone to turning Liszt 4/4 into 3/4 or 3/4 into 6/8 (at 14:55 for instance), or to shorten value of silences or semi-notes. Rubinstein the showman never lurks far, afraid to bore his audience to sleep (or have it burst into applause) if he should let a silence last more than two seconds. He also adds a bar of chords at 19:30.



On the other hand, parts of the sonata, and most notably its beginning, sound curiously uninvolved. I commented on Horowitz' 1977 recording that he made the Sonata into a theatre play or an opera - and in all probability one involving Faust, Marguerite and Mephisto. Nothing like that with Rubinstein. His is an "objective" approach, he plays the music and nothing beyond the notes. It is a tasteful reading, maybe a little too much so for Liszt. Whatever you may think of Horowitz' 1977, love it (as I do) or hate it, you can't deny its theatricality and its demonic power. There is also a breath-taking, frenzied vehemence with Gilels in 1961. Nothing like that with Rubinstein. His final "stretto quasi presto" at 22:48 lacks a touch of fire and the kind of feeling of being on the brink of the abyss that Gilels brings to it to it. Rubinstein's interpretation is beautifully controlled and tasteful - and maybe a little too much so: after all, this is Liszt, not Chopin. His superb control is, I feel, both the reading's value and its shortcoming.



The sound is good. On headphones you can hear at times a little ostinato percussive click on the left channel - in all probability Rubinstein's fingernails hitting the keyboard.



With Franck's Prelude, Chorale & Fugue and Busoni's reworking of Bach's Chaconne (both recorded in 1970), we get two relatively rare, highly appropriate and superb fillers. In the Chaconne, Rubinstein strikes a fine balance between Michelangeli's fiery sweep (Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (Références)) and Nikolayeva's granitic grandeur (Bach, Toccata and Fugue / 'Jesu Bleibet Meine Freude' / Chorale Prelude / Fugue - Nikolaeva). It is grand piano, with at times maybe too much pedalling for Bach (and possibly Busoni too) but plenty of dynamism when it is called for, such as in the "con fuoco animato" passage starting at 5:01, and even reaching grandiose intensity in the second part ("Allegro moderato, ma deciso", 8:28 onwards) and in the final pages.



This same disc has been reissued by RCA in 1995 as Artur Rubinstein - Franck: Prelude, Chorale & Fugue; Bach-Busoni: Chaconne; Liszt: Sonata in B minor and again in their complete Rubinstein collection, with more fillers: Rubinstein Collection, Vol. 68.

"