ANATOL UGORSKI Complete Recordings on Deutsche Grammophon / Review

ANATOL UGORSKI

Complete Recordings

on Deutsche Grammophon

DG  479 9923 (13 CDs)

 

The year is 1991. The imminent fall of the Soviet Union saw the 50-year-old Saint Petersburg-born Anatol Ugorski join the roster of the German yellow label. Known as a modernist and proponent of the avant-garde, his DG recordings dating from 1991 to 2000 gave a hint of his “subversive” tendencies. Not since Ivo Pogorelich had a pianist divided opinion or been as controversial.

 

An example was his view of Beethoven’s final Sonata in C minor (Op.111), which ran over 38 minutes. The glacial pacing of the Arietta (and variations) was so protracted as to strain credibility. The slower Bagatelles from Op.126 and the ubiquitous Fur Elise were also a snore-fest. His ability for fast playing was however evident in the Rage Over the Lost Penny. His expansive take on the Diabelli Variations, going past the hour mark, was somewhat more acceptable. As was his epic stance on the three Brahms piano sonatas, all early and blustery works. This grandstanding does work, even more so in the Handel Variations and Chaconne in D minor (after Bach’s Violin Partita No.2) for left hand. The mind boggles what he would have done with the Hammerklavier Sonata if given the chance.

 

Fortunately, Schumann’s Davidsbundlertanze Op.6 comprising 18 short pieces strung together like a necklace finds Ugorski in peak story-telling form, while Schubert’s rhapsodic Wanderer Fantasy blazes like the virtuoso showpiece it is. In Chopin, he brings charm to the early Polonaises (albeit naive teenaged efforts) and assorted shorts like the rarely-played Bolero, Tarantella, Ecossaises (Scottish Dances) and Nouvelles Etudes. Barnstorming was never the issue in Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition and Stravinsky’s Three Movements from Petrouchka, instead he brings out the colours like a true Russian. In four of Scriabin’s Sonatas (Nos.2, 3, 5 and 9), he smoulders ever so patiently, sizzles and eventually catches fire. For his sole concerto album, Scriabin’s early, Chopinesque Piano Concerto and Prometheus (Poem of Fire)  are poles apart in style but still sound convincing. Both are partnered with the Chicago Symphony conducted by Pierre Boulez.

 

The jewel in the crown has to be the three discs devoted to Olivier Messiaen’s 13-movement Catalogue d’Oiseaux (Catalogue of Birds). Messiaen was a noted ornithologist who studiously recorded birdsong, then transcribed them for piano as extended musical portraits. The ambient environment and geography were also crafted into the soundscapes, standing in stark contrast with the varied twitters and tweets (using the terms literally). Ugorski was reputed to have played all of these from memory, an outstanding feat of dedication, which comes across most sonorously.  

 

Short Stories is a disc of encores by Chopin, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Liszt, Debussy, Rachmaninov, Scriabin, with the usual suspects, but the inclusion of the Mozart-Busoni Giga, Bolero e Variazione and Weber Invitation to the Dance greatly enhances its interest. Whatever caveats one may have with Ugorski’s Beethoven, his music-making is interesting and liberating, totally befitting his reputation as a piano maverick extraordinare.