Search - Robert Schumann, Franz [Vienna] Schubert, Eugene Ormandy :: Schubert: Musical Moments; Schumann: Piano Concerto

SCHUMANN, SCHUBERT, SERKIN

DAVID BRYSON | Glossop Derbyshire England | 03/14/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"In 50 years of a love affair, still undimmed, with good music I wonder how many thousand performances I must have heard of the Schumann concerto. Throughout the same half century, a great era of instrumentalists, one piano-player more than any other has exercised a special hold over me, and here he is. His is among the half-dozen recordings of the concerto that I currently own, but in such a competitive field neither his nor anyone else's was my clear first choice. I had not been listening to the work for some time either, so the reissue on cd, presumably remastered, as part of Serkin's centenary series, prompted me to reassess what I thought about it.



I think that the older I get the better I begin to understand what makes Serkin as special as he is. Horowitz, Pollini, Ax and other more gifted admirers of Serkin than I am never explained in much detail why he was so special for them, so I have to follow my own rush-light as best I can. This can fairly be called a `standard' reading of the concerto, unlike, say, Lipatti's with its very fast speeds in the outer movements. It's a perfectly safe recommendation for any newcomer to the work, and in terms of basic tempi and the handling of the tricky speed-fluctuations in the first movement it's not a million miles distant in approach from my own longtime favourite, Cherkassky with Boult and the LPO. I'm convinced that the sound must have been remastered - the special `sculpted' quality of Serkin's touch makes an impression right away, and the impression stays to the end. In terms of expressiveness, in the first movement particularly, it depends what you're looking for. Serkin does not have much of a feminine side, it must be admitted. There is any amount of depth and true emotion, but it's all distinctly manly. What does come through to an unusual extent in the very clear new sound is a quite exceptional loving care over details - details of phrasing, of touch, of timing. This is not the place to try to list them, but you will surely be very aware that this is a chamber-player turned soloist when you hear the way Serkin accompanies the orchestra, as the solo in this concerto is often required to do. Details aside, there is that completely unequalled sense of rhythm and timing. Everyone seems too polite to say that Lipatti is letting the speed run away with him slightly in the finale. Serkin takes a more average tempo here, with a small acceleration right at the end, but the control is absolute, and listen out if you will for the little right-hand mordants here and there.



The G major Konzertstueck seems to have been recorded over a 2-day period in 1964 along with the concerto, but the difference in the sound is considerable, particularly from the soloist with his rich and beautiful touch in the slow opening section. This is my own idea of great Schumann-playing without qualification, and I ought to say somewhere that Ormandy and the Philadelphia cover themselves with distinction. You're not likely to miss the wonderful plaintive pastoral-piping tone of the oboe right at the start of the concerto, and this great orchestra goes a long way in the Konzertstueck to show how well Schumann actually could write for the orchestra when he had a solo instrument as well, whatever the shortcomings of his symphonies in this regard.



The Schubert Moments Musicals (sic) date from as long ago as 1952, and the recorded sound is not as good as in the orchestral pieces, but it's far from bad. Any antiquarian looking for the DG/Fontana LP of these pieces with the `Reliquie' sonata is warned that the vinyl of my own copy has deteriorated in a way I never elsewhere encountered to the point of being intolerable, so it's a relief now to have both works, differently coupled, on cd. The only real problem is in the big emphatic chords in the second of the F minor pieces where there is a touch of distortion, but the superb arrogant swing and bounce to Serkin's rhythm ought to make up for that. In the little F minor `Russian dance' number I must say that Serkin is not the man for this piece. Everything is basically `right', but it's professorial and lacking in charm, never Serkin's forte. Sometime try to hear Schnabel do it if you want to hear how it can be done. As with the concerto, the choice of performances I can recall is as the sands of the sea without number and I couldn't name an outright favourite. However the point of a centenary reissue is presumably to let us hear the suite specifically from Serkin. I particularly like his handling of the first item, really beautiful and affecting and with some striking pedal effects that almost recall Cziffra, a similarity that I find more often than anyone else seems to.



How long this centenary series will remain available I have no way of knowing. Serkin's own story ended 15 years ago, and the ageing band of his devotees who sensed in him a phenomenon completely out of the ordinary is dwindling too as we in our turn are summoned away. I have heard nobody who seems likely to fill his special place, and those too young to have known him will find some aspects of his genius here that are not completely replicated elsewhere. Serkin did more spectacular things than anything on this disc, but his notorious propensity to suppress his own recordings makes it all the more important to put together as much of the picture as he allowed us. You may have many performances of the concerto, and I don't guarantee that this one will supplant whoever your particular favourites are. Nevertheless Serkin in his prime is special in almost anything."