PIANO FANTASIES / PAVEL GINTOV on Navona Records / Review

PIANO FANTASIES

PAVEL GINTOV, Piano

Navona Records NV6379

 

Prize-winning Ukrainian pianist Pavel Gintov takes the listener on a chronological survey of keyboard fantasies, spanning some two hundred years, from the baroque era to the early 20^th century. Fantasies have evolved over the centuries, beginning as creations of whim and fancy, which later espoused the idea of compositional “free form” as opposed to strict “sonata form”. In a way, what is not a sonata is a fantasy. However, this distinction became blurred along the way, which is why we have sonata-fantasies and their like, also explored by this fine pianist.

 

J.S.Bach’s Fantasia in C minor (BWV.906), usually performed without its companion fugue (left incomplete), makes for a stirring opener. Originally for harpsichord, Gintov’s clarity of articulation is faultless and the play of counterpoint, involving frequent crossing of hands is also excellent. His son C.P.E.Bach’s Fantasia in C major is as quirky as they come, a close cousin in spirit to Beethoven’s more extended Fantasia in G minor (Op.77). Both works delight in unexpected twists and turns, abrupt shifts in moods and dynamics, while revelling in a deliciously shared anarchic spirit. In between, Haydn’s Fantasia in C (Hob.XVII:4) comes across as a kind of light entertainment.

 

Neither of Mozart’s well-known Fantasias in D minor and C minor are included, but one gets instead the late Fantasia in F minor (K.608), orinally written for mechanical clock. More often heard in versions for organ or piano four hands, Gintov’s own transcription is a convincing one. This fantasy takes the form of a French overture, opening with a declamation in dotted rhythm, followed by a mighty fugue. Here, Gintov’s handling of disparate voices in counterpoint is pin-point in its incisiveness.   

 

Chopin’s Fantasy in F minor (Op.49), the best-known work of this collection, is ironically crafted in single movement sonata form. It receives a fine reading that lacks nothing in drama and technical execution.

 

The true discovery of Gintov’s recital is the Sonata-Fantasy No.2 by fellow Ukrainian Théodore Akimenko (1876-1945), student of Rimsky-Korsakov and Balakirev, and first composition teacher of Stravinsky. Composed in 1911, it shares certain similarities with the work of same designation by Scriabin, namely its two-movement form, late Romantic idiom and ecstatically charged atmosphere. The moods in both movements are however reversed. The first channels agitation and volatility, with flights of fantasy conducted over an increasing demented waltz rhythm, while the second winds down ever so peaceably and dreamily as a slow waltz. So should this be called a waltz-fantasy as well?

 

Its quiet close in B major leads seamlessly into Scriabin’s far better-known Fantasy in B minor (Op.28, from 1900), its relative major key. Here the listener returns to more familiar territory, and Gintov provides harmonic richness for the ears as this interesting recital disc draws to a breathless and exciting conclusion.