CD Reviews (The Straits Times, February 2015)

CHOPIN / SCHUMANN Études

VALENTINA LISITSA, Piano

Decca 478 7697 / ****1/2

At over 85 minutes playing time, this has to be the longest single CD in existence. Within it, Ukrainian-American pianist Valentina Lisitsa packs in Chopin’s 24 Études (Op.10 & 25) and all of Schumann’s Études Symphoniques, including the five posthumous variations. The draw of this Youtube sensation is not her fire-breathing virtuosity but an innate musicality which elevate Chopin’s digitally most challenging essays beyond the realm of technical exercises. She nevertheless dispatches in C sharp minor study (Op.10 No.4) in 1’47”, bettering Andrei Gavrilov’s famously manic version by 1 second! Elsewhere, a poetic sensibility presides, and never a slave to the metronome, freedom of expression and lyrical beauty are never in short supply, even in the most arduous numbers.

The Schumann Op.13 set comprises 12 variations (and five more as an appendix) on a staid descending Andante theme which does not suggest possibilities for development, but how one is proved wrong by compositional genius. Here a sense of fantasy takes over, where Lisitsa positively revels in. Listen to how she readily switches gear from utmost delicacy to reaping a whirlwind, like a Formula One driver negotiating a treacherous turn, with never a dull moment. One could easily by exhausted by a surfeit of prestissimo brilliance, but Lisitsa does not allow one that indulgence. She is too good a musician to fall into that speed trap. Enjoy and how time flies; that is relativity at work. 

LYAPUNOV Piano Concertos

SHORENA TSINTSABADZE, Piano

Russian Philharmonic / Dmitry Yablonsky

Naxos 8.570783 / ****1/2

Russian nationalist composer Sergey Lyapunov (1859-1924) is probably unknown to most except pianophiles and keyboard wizards in the thrall of his Liszt-inspired 12 Transcendental Etudes. He was a student of Taneyev and Klindworth (pupil of Liszt) and was close to Balakirev, whose circle of “The Mighty Handful” included Borodin and Rimsky-Korsakov. Also a collector of Russian folk music, these influences coloured his music, which is exotic and Oriental in flavour.

His two piano concertos (1890 and 1909) are in single continuous movements which each play for about 20 minutes, with recurring themes in the cyclic form much in the style of Liszt. Even the virtuosic flourishes utilise Lisztian devices and technique for ultimate bravura. Certain passages from the Second Concerto are unabashed direct quotations from Liszt’s Second Piano Concerto.

His Rhapsody On Ukrainian Themes (1907) was dedicated to Busoni, and modelled on Liszt’s Hungarian Fantasy and Rimsky-Korskov’s Piano Concerto, with clear folk accents and a Cossack dance to finish. Georgian pianist Shorena Tsintsabadze plays brilliantly and offers much competition to British pianist Hamish Milne (on Hyperion) who has the better recorded orchestral sound. Naxos’s budget price may be the deciding factor, but Russophiles and Lisztomaniacs need not hesitate.  

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE / CHISATO KUSUNOKI Piano Recital / Review

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE 

CHISATO KUSUNOKI Piano Recital 

Victoria Concert Hall 

Thursday (13 May 2010)

This review was published in The Straits Times on 15 May 2010. 

Some of the pre-requisites to perform Russian piano music convincingly are emotional heft, an iron-clad technique and loads of reserve. While one does not need to be Russian or at least Slavic, it certain helps. It was thus a pleasant surprise to see a UK-based Japanese pianist wrestle with the Russian bear and come out victorious and pretty much unscathed. 

Chisato Kusonoki packs a wallop within her tiny frame. For Alexander Scriabin’s fiery Third Sonata in F sharp minor which opened her 2-hour long recital, the music tread the fine line of being copy-Chopin to bursting free from all fetters. She shaped the lyrical phrases beautifully, especially in the languid slow movement, and went for broke in the volatile and breathless finale. Poised and polished, she was unafraid to throw off the gloves and go bare-knuckled.

Equally enthralling were two contrasting Transcendental Études by Sergei Lyapunov, an obvious homage to Liszt’s virtuosity. The serene Lullaby luxuriated in Borodinesque harmonies while the harrowing Lesghinka, a coruscating Oriental dance, found her in imperious form. If there is a work to outdo Balakirev’s overplayed Islamey Fantasy, this is it. Students and serial competitors take note!

Demonstrating she was not just dizzying fingers, her selection of three Tchaikovsky Seasons – the slower and more introspective ones – revealed a more intimate side. In Autumn Song (October), Kusunoki’s uniting of two disparate voices was a model of particular beauty and sensitivity. 

In Rachmaninov’s Six Moments Musicaux (Op.16), all the critical faculties for a memorable performance came to bear. Her gift of cantabile served the first and fifth pieces well, the former never a slave to the right hand’s vertiginous maneuvers and the latter reliving the joy of arch-simplicity. Razor-sharp reflexes also weathered the whirlwind tempos of the second and fourth Moments, with lots more to spare. 

The brooding third number, the most Russian of the set, probed deeply into the collective psyche and offered up some secrets. For the final C major romp, she unleashed the roar of the ocean, approximating the power of a Lazar Berman, but without the pummeling brute force. Her lovely encore, a Chopin nocturne and the only non-Russian work, marked a welcome return to solace and serenity.