FOUR
HANDS
LEON
FLEISHER &
KATHERINE
JACOBSON, Piano 4 Hands
Sony
Classical 88875064162 / ****1/2
The venerated American pianist Leon
Fleisher, once afflicted with focal dystonia of the right hand, has returned to
play piano repertoire for both hands. This album sees him joined by his wife
and former-student Katherine Jacobson in a lovely programme for piano duet.
Johannes Brahms' Liebeslieder Walzer (Love Song Waltzes), heard
here without the voices, is a more extended and mellower follow-up to his Waltzes
Op.39.
The Fleishers play with great sensitivity
and sympathy for the idiom, and this gemütlich (carefree and relaxed
like only the Viennese know how) feeling continues into Franz Schubert's
masterpiece Fantasy in F minor, which rises to dramatic height from its
initial lilting indolence.
The concert closes with Lucien Garban's
transcription for piano duet of Maurice Ravel's La Valse. Confined to a single keyboard, its range seems unusually
constricted for most part, but the duo generates a voluminous sound and much
excitement towards its climactic end. The encore is a 4-hand arrangement of
living American composer William Bolcom's most famous short piece, The
Graceful Ghost Rag, rendered with rare finesse and nostalgia.
THE
LURE OF THE EAST
GEOFFREY
SABA, Piano
Carnegie
Concerts CC017 / ****1/2
Here is an excellently-programme recital
of piano music inspired by Western composers' fascination with the Orient. Its
generous 77 minutes of exotica may be subdivided into three parts. First is
traditional musical picture-postcard views represented by Debussy's Estampes
(Pagodas evoke the sound of gamelans), Godowsky's Gardens Of
Buitenzorg (after the famous botanic gardens in Bogor
The substantial central section delves
deeper with Szymanowski's Sheherazade (from Masques), Messiaen's
ferociously complex Canteyodjaya (which in Sanskrit translates into
“song of joy”), Australian Peter Sculthorpe's Harbour Dreaming and
Indonesian Krisna Setiawan's AgMaTa 1, which relives techniques used in
gamelan music and the kecak dance.
The final and lightest third part
approximates kitsch, closing with Abram Chasins' Three Chinese Pieces
(the best known is Rush Hour In Hong Kong) and Percy Grainger's Beautiful
Fresh Flower, a transcription of Molihua. Australia-born British
pianist Geoffrey Saba has the requisite technique, sense of colour and shade to
do his selections justice, and this is accompanied by well researched programme
notes and historical illustrations.
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