100 PIANO MASTERPIECES by Harmonia Mundi

 

100 PIANO MASTERPIECES

The Best of Classical Music

Harmonia Mundi

HMX 2908990.95 / 6 CDs

This is a compilation box I like. All classical music, and none of the tedious and vacuous New Age, minimalist, “easy listening” dross for spa resorts that passes as classics. Harmonia Mundi has done a fair job by cramming 100 tracks onto six discs. Some of these are very short, movements or bits excerpted from longer works, but there are some quite substantial pieces which are played complete. The discs are chronologically arranged, from Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757) to William Bolcom (born 1938, still living) and performed by the French label’s roster of seriously good artists.

Not enough Paul Lewis heard here

The Baroque period is limited to a single track, Scarlatti’s Sonata K.492 (played by Korean Cliburn laureate Joyce Yang), understandably because Harmonia Mundi mostly involves period instruments in baroque music, and no harpsichord music has been included. So, no J.S.Bach or Handel to be heard here. Disc 1 has Haydn and Mozart sonata movements (from Alain Planes and Georges Pludermacher) and the late Brigitte Engerer playing Fur Elise. HM star pianist Paul Lewis is heard in Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata (first and third movements only) and the Andante cantabile from the Pathetique Sonata. The sole curiosity is the Storm movement from Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony (transcribed by Liszt) played by Michel Dalberto. Interesting but hardly essential.

Michel Dalberto in Beethoven-Liszt

Alain Planes and Alexandre Tharaud
get the most tracks in all.

Schubert, Mendelssohn and Schumann occupy Disc 2. Instead of Lewis, Planes contributes single movements from a Schubert Sonata (D.625) and the Wanderer Fantasy, an Impromptu and a Moment Musicaux (No.3, of course). Alexandre Tharaud and Zhu Xiao-Mei perform the first movement from Schubert’s Divertissement a la Hongroise. Spanish phenom Javier Perianes gives a dextrous account of Mendelssohn’s Rondo capriccioso and two Songs Without Words. Very short Schumann movements, 8 minutes in total, come from 1997 Cliburn winner Jon Nakamatsu, Beatrice Rana and Engerer.

Jon Nakamatsu and Javier Perianes

The entirety of Disc 3, all 16 tracks, is devoted to Chopin. There are five Waltzes and three Preludes performed by Perianes and Tharaud. All three Nocturnes from Op.9 are heard complete by Engerer, a nice uninterrupted sequence. There are also complete performances of the Barcarolle (Perianes), Fantaisie-Impromptu (Olga Kern) and best of all, Polonaise-Fantasy Op.61 from Cedric Tiberghien. A rather satisfying 79 minutes.

Frederic Chiu and Cedric Tiberghien

More of the Romantics occupy Disc 4, including Liszt, Brahms, Chabrier and Janacek. Nakamatsu gets 17 minutes to play Liszt’s Impromptu (Nocturne), Hungarian Rhapsody No.2 and the transcription of Schumann’s Fruhlingsnacht. Frederic Chiu plays the Tarantella from Venezia e Napoli while Paul Lewis is heard in the central seven minutes of the Sonata in B minor. 

Great Russians:
Alexander Melnikov and Olga Kern

Brahms is shared by Tiberghien (two Hungarian Dances and a Ballade) and Alexander Melnikov (the first movement of Sonata No.2). HM would be remiss for missing out on 11 minutes of Chabrier (played by Planes). Thankfully, Janacek’s Sonata 1.X.1905 is heard in its entirety, followed by a movement from On The Overgrown Path (Planes). Kern plays Rachmaninov’s transcription of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumble Bee.

More great Slavs:
Nikolai Lugansky and Vadym Kholodenko

Disc 5 dwells on the French Impressionists and late Romantics. Debussy gets representation from Nikolai Lugansky (Deux Arabesques and Clair de lune) and Planes (Jardins sous la pluie and a posthumous Image). All the Ravel tracks come from Tharaud’s excellent integrale, including Jeux d’eau, Pavane pour un infante defunte, Un barque sur l’ocean, Ondine and the Prelude from Le Tombeau de Couperin. Sandwiched in between are Satie shorts (Tharaud), Scriabin Preludes (Vadym Kholodenko) and Rachmaninov Preludes (Lugansky). Particularly delightful is Rachmaninov’s Italian Polka from Brigitte Engerer and Oleg Maisenberg.

Frank Braley's Gershwin is excellent

The final disc is all 20th-century. Short pieces by Falla, Mompou, Bartok, Stravinsky, Prokofiev and Shostakovich are represented by the likes of Perianes, Planes, Melnikov and Chiu. American composers get the final say here too. Frank Braley gives a fine solo accounts of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, The Man I Love and Jasbo Brown Blues (from Porgy and Bess). The most contemporary piece is William Bolcom’s Graceful Ghost Rag (dating 1970) from Michael Sheppard. 

Michael Sheppard is totally
idiomatic in William Bolcom's rag

Here is a fine, no nonsense compilation box of piano performances that is well worth sampling or listening right through. Retailing at super budget-price, there is little or no cause for regret.