CD Reviews (The Straits Times, August 2010)

NOW WOULD ALL FREUDIANS PLEASE STAND ASIDE?
JAMES RHODES, Piano
Signum Records SIGCD185 (2CDs)

*****

This is the sequel to Razor Blades, Little Pills & Big Pianos, by the conformity challenged British pianist James Rhodes. The arcane title comes from a quote by the late Canadian maverick Glenn Gould whose playing of Bach Rhodes worships. Thankfully he is no Gould clone and imbues Bach’s forward-looking Sixth Partita in E minor with much spirit and sensitivity, minus the eccentricity. The ear-piquing harmonies of the Sarabande come through most eloquently. Quite unlike Gould, he also has a thing for hyphenated Bach. The Bach-Busoni Toccata, Adagio & Fugue (BWV.564) receives a grandstanding performance which even tops the quirky Horowitz, with the Aria transformed into a grand procession. His view of Beethoven’s late Sonata No.30 in E major(Op.109), with its inventive and almost jazzy variations, is no less involving.

A bonus disc includes two short Chopin tracks (a Prélude and an Étude), excerpts from an interview, and a video of the sublime Marcello-Bach Adagio. Although Rhodes is fashioned to look like a cross between Jack Nicholson’s Joker and Phua Chu Kang with his yellow boots, here is an extremely serious artist with a lot to say.

STRAVINSKY The Rite of Spring
REVUELTAS Night of the Maya
Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra
GUSTAVO DUDAMEL
Deutsche Grammophon 477 8775
****1/2

This is an unusual but totally logical coupling, one which revels in primal and intoxicating dance. Silvestre Revueltas (1899-1940) was the most original Mexican composer of his time, whose all too short life of genius and alcoholism seemed to parallel that of the Russian nationalist Mussorgsky. His La Noche De Los Mayas (Night Of The Maya), in four movements, was initially conceived as film music, but first performed 20 years after Revueltas’ death. Pagan rites and sacrificial orgies are vividly imagined and captured in these tableaux, which range from folk music simplicity (Night of Revelry) to a battery of uninhibited improvisatory drumming (Night of Enchantment).

Stravinsky’s iconic ballet The Rite Of Spring needs little introduction, except that its shock value remains unabated almost a century since its 1913 premiere. The Venezuelan wunderkind of the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra led by the equally youthful Gustavo Dudamel surpass themselves in this monster score, where complex rhythms and jangling dissonances continue to baffle. A totally enjoyable romp, but beware the speakers!

Piano CD Reviews (The Straits Times, August 2009)

PIOTR ANDERSZEWSKI AT CARNEGIE HALL
Virgin Classics 2672912

Rating *****

A Carnegie Hall solo recital is probably the ultimate dream for any professional musician, usually the sure sign that he or she has “arrived”. French-Polish pianist Piotr Anderszewski avoids the virtuoso fodder of Chopin, Liszt and Rachmaninov, instead wisely opting for subtler alternatives. The result is spectacular.

Bach’s Partita No.2 in C minor has seldom sounded this free-spirited, without indulging in Gouldian idiosyncrasy. This love for counterpoint and polyphony is further explored in Beethoven’s late Sonata No.31 in A flat major (Op.110), which receives a magisterial yet tender reading. Schumann’s Carnival Jest In Vienna (Faschingsschawank aus Wien) provides the only outright bluster, balanced with the sinuous melodies and piquant harmonies of Bohemian composer Leos Janacek’s suite In The Mists. Even his encore has a touch of the exotic and esoteric. Bartok’s Three Hungarian Folksongs From Csik District is a total charmer.

RAZOR BLADES, LITTLE PILLS & BIG PIANOS
JAMES RHODES, Piano
Signum Classics CD153

Rating *****

Judging by the cover, Briton James Rhodes is not your run-of-the-mill conservatory graduate. A survivor of the “school of hard knocks” (read drugs and dysfunctional relationships), he proves to be as creative a musician as a would-be Brit Awards icon.

Bach is the focus of this début album. His French Suite No.5 in G major is cool, stylish and tastefully ornamented, and the Bach-Busoni Chaconne strong in architecture and drama. In Beethoven’s short Sonata in E minor (Op.90), a wellspring of Schubertian lyricism is found, while Chopin’s Ballade No.4 builds inexorably to a rapturous climax, surely the mark of a serious artist with a wide-ranging palette. The encores bring more smiles: Moszkowski’s scintillating Etincelles (Sparks), embellished with his own exuberant additions, and the sublime Bach-Siloti Prelude in B minor. The classical music industry could do with more of his kind.

This CD may be ordered at: www.mdt.co.uk

DEBUSSY Études
NORIKO OGAWA, Piano
BIS CD-1655

Rating *****

The 12 Études of Claude Debussy (1862-1918) have suffered alongside his 24 Préludes because the former do not have the latter’s picturesque and oh-so-poetic titles. Mundane technical titles like For Five Fingers, For Octaves and For Compound Arpeggios, possessing subtler melodies and being formidably difficult to play also present great challenges to both performer and listener. These are also the French composer’s last and finest works, proof that his big pioneering steps had stridden well into the 20th century.

Japanese pianist Noriko Ogawa matches the laser-like brilliance of her compatriot Mitsuko Uchida’s famous recording (on Philips), yet possesses a velvet-edged touch that sounds warm and truly gorgeous. This being the fourth and final instalment of Debussy’s complete solo piano music, Ogawa also includes a further half-hour of odds and ends: the beguiling but rarely heard Six Antique Epigraphs, a 13th étude (Étude retrouvée) discovered in 1977, a movement from a teenage piano trio (Piano Trio in G minor), and Debussy’s last composition – the evocative 2-minute-long prelude Evenings Lit By Glowing Coals. Don’t miss this.