A Perfect Piano Recital
D. A Wend | Buffalo Grove, IL USA | 06/19/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This disc was recorded at Wigmore Hall on October 29, 1993, and shows, once again, how vibrant Shura Cherkassky played a mere two years before his death. The recital begins with a Gavotte by Jean-Philippe Rameau, a favorite piece for Mr. Cherkassky that he plays with great elegance. A sonata by Joseph Haydn (composed ca. 1781 - 1782) continues the program, and is charmingly played with nimble dexterity, particularly in the rondo finale.
The Haydn is followed by the longest piece on the program - the Hindemith Sonata No. 3 (1936), which was a favorite work of Mr. Cherkassky. The Sonata is an engaging work written in a neo-classical style that came to dominate Hindemith's music. Chopin dominates the middle of the concert with four pieces - the Ballade No. 3, Nocturne in F-sharp, Mazurka in F-sharp and Mazurka in G. The Nocturne is beautifully phrased and delicately nuanced, arguably among the best performances of this music. There are three pieces by Sir Lennox Berkeley: two preludes from his opus 23 that are engaging and nicely played and a charming Polka that is satiric along the lines of Shostakovich and is a nice bravura piece.
The Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 concludes the concert with Mr. Cherkassky giving a superb account with nice touches of drama and virtuosity, and the disc concludes with an encore: Tchaikovsky's October from The Seasons.
The music is beautifully recorded; there is applause after each selection and I detected only a single cough during the Chopin Nocturne. The booklet describes each piece in detail with pictures of the composers and there is a nice biography of Shura Cherkassky. This is another great Cherkassky recital and one that should not be missed.
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