Keyboard Thursday album review: Vladimir Ashkenazy wraps up project to record all Rachmaninov piano music
So many people are obsessed with completeness that they overlook the possibility of diminishing returns as they pick up every last crumb from a painter, author or composer. Such is the case with the great pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy’s quest to record everything Sergei Rachmaninov wrote for solo piano.
On this new Decca album, we’re down to the last bits of not-first-choice manuscript paper Rachmaninov stuffed into his suitcase as the family fled the Russian Revolution in 1917.
Russian-born Icelander Ashkenazy, who is 75 now, has already left a remarkable legacy of recordings and fond concert memories as a pianist and conductor. This album, his final one of solo piano works by Rachmaninov, is as much by an obsessive personality as for an obsessive personality.
Many of the pieces on this disc, which includes world premeire recordings of two transcriptions (his song “Sad is the night,” arranged by Ashkenazy, and the Nunc dimittis from the All-Night Vigil, transcribed by the composer), are really only of interest to people who need to have every piece by the Russian composer in their music collection.
Having been seduced by Alessio Bax’s Rachmaninov miniatures not too long ago, I find Ashkenazy’s approach a bit too hard-edged in the salon pieces. The final Nunc dimittis (Old Simeon asking God to please take him quietly, now that a prophecy has been fulfilled) also sounds too metrical at Ashkenazy’s percussive piano.
I prefer the flow of voices to the reminder that here are hammers hitting strings.
You can find out more about the album here.
John Terauds
I just had a listen to the “Nynie otpushchayeshi” track, and I agree with your assessment. It’s too rigid and lacks the smoothness and magic of the choral version. The uniqueness of the final couple of measures (descending scale down to an impossibly low Bb in the basses) is lost as well.
In general I’m not sure that the All-Night Vigil lends itself well to piano transcription (except as a reading exercise). The flow of harmonies is what makes it work, and that in turn requires the sustained sound of choral voices.
I have listened to this disc a few times in the car. A few tracks such as the Fugue and Piece in A flat are not interesting. However, some of them really are beautiful little gems – both the melodies and the Barcarolle spring to mind. They are not easy to play and embryonic in the sense that they point towards the mature Rachmaninov.
I haven’t found Ashkenazy hard edged myself. He seems in fine form, and his artistry is actually very subtle – no blindingly obvious rubato or twisting of the melodic line. The pieces “unfold” without mannerism and his pianism is still very much top notch – listen to the delicacy of the Barcarolle where he captures the melancholy in the left hand with fast pianissimo ripples in the treble, sounding like running water. The Humoreske has some real virtuoso moments pulled off brilliantly without strain and the technically awkward Mazurka is perfectly judged. The control and range of colour is amazing and really drew me in.