AETERNUM / BACH & BEETHOVEN / Eliane Rodrigues, Piano / Review

AETERNUM

BACH & BEETHOVEN

Eliane Rodrigues, Piano

Navona Records  NV 6285 / TT: 74'00"

 

Browsing through the catalogue of the New Hampshire-based Navona Records label, the name of one artist truly stands out: Brazilian pianist Eliane Rodrigues. Now based in Antwerp (Belgium), she has amassed an impressive discography, having garnered a reputation of being some kind of a super-virtuoso. This album confirms her prowess as both an imaginative transcriber and a stunningly original performer.  

 

Transcriptions of J.S.Bach and Beethoven for piano have been dominated by the likes of Ferruccio Busoni and Franz Liszt for as long as the instrument’s history, and one imagines that the efforts of both pianist-composers to be unsurpassed. What more can be said about the already familiar music in multiple recordings, but Rodrigues brings many surprises to the table.

 

Four Bach works selected here were originally for organ, but with ingenious reworkings of voices and harmonies (and not the musical themes), these translate perfectly well for piano. The Prelude and Fugue in G major (BWV.541), comes like faceful of ice cold water, an onslaught of unlikely intervals in the brief prelude. This rash of dissonances has a transformative effect but parity is restored in the fugue. The better-known Fantasia and Fugue in G minor (BWV.542) sounds more like an improvisation, both in the first half as well as the indestructible fugue which is a truly rocking affair.

 

The dense organ textures of Prelude and Fugue in A minor (BWV.543) are swept clear to reveal a slick and sleek torso while revelling in altered harmonies. The portentous opening of the very familiar Toccata and Fugue in D minor (BWV.565) is retained, with certain harmonies reconfigured to pique the ears. The music box effects and fanciful sweeps of arpeggios in the fugue are playful excursions not to be found in the original or Busoni and Tausig’s famous transcriptions. The idea to insert Beethoven symmetrically between the Bach works was also a good one.

 

There is less intervention in Rodrigues’ take on Beethoven’s Symphony No.5 in C minor (Op.67), which is built upon Liszt’s mighty transcription. Without compromising its architecture and supporting structures, she instead fills in various textures and details, like octaves and added beats, while removing obstacles which impede the music’s inexorable flow. Everything is accomplished in big broad strokes, conveying its might and grandeur without apology. Her infallible technique and physical endurance holds up well to Lisztian (as well as self-imposed) challenges, conquering these as if she were a modern-day Liszt herself.

 

One might already possess the famous Beethoven-Liszt recordings by Glenn Gould (Sony), Cyprien Katsaris (Warner) or Konstantin Scherbakov (Naxos), but this highly personal take by Rodrigues provides different lenses to view the warhorse, and is a compelling one at that.  

 

You may sample / purchase this CD at:

ÆTERNUM – Navona Records 

THE GERSHWIN & BERNSTEIN CONNECTION / Navona Records / Review

THE GERSHWIN &

BERNSTEIN CONNECTION

Eliane Rodrigues & Nina Smeets, Pianos

Carlo Willems & Koen Wilmaers, Percussion

Navona Records 6230

 

Two pianos and percussion, what could be more exciting? The cult classic is the recording on Deutsche Grammophon by Martha Argerich and Nelson Freire, partnered by Peter Sadlo and Edgar Guggeis, with works by Bartok and Ravel. This album of George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein by the mother-daughter duo of Eliane Rodrigues and Nina Smeets with percussionists Carlo Willems and Coen Wilmaers comes very close. A programme of sheer exuberance and infectiousness of rhythms, coupled with excellence of execution. What more could one desire?

 

To be honest, Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue does not really benefit from added percussion, so these come like extra bells and whistles. At close to 20 minutes, it is also on the slow side with the opening introduction needing an extra push. But when push comes to shove, there are truly exciting moments which all build up to a frenetic close. This reading is adapted from the full-length orchestral version (not the truncated piano solo version), which proves to be the right choice.

 

There should, however, be no reservations whatsoever for Gershwin’s Concerto in F, with the percussion parts added by Thomas Schindl. The original highlights the timpani from the outset, so percussion is an essential element of what makes this work rock. The foursome have the idiom down pat. Jazzy rhythms are incisively delivered, and with percussion not being optional extras, sonorities generated have an truly orchestral feel. Also, something is right when the solo trumpet of the central slow movement’s blues is not missed. The driving rhythms of the “Spanish” finale are exhilarating, and the recalling of themes from earlier movements tautly unites the work as a whole. The spectacular tam tam crash near the end is also pure Hollywood. Totally memorable.  

 

Wedged in between both Gershwin works are the Symphonic Dances from Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story, adapted from the two piano version by John Musto. The vital link between this and that legendary Argerich and Co. album is the late Peter Sadlo (1962-2016), who arranged the percussion parts. Like the concerto, this is another sonic spectacular. The finger snaps and police whistle have been retained, but there is no room for the “Mambo!” shouts, instead replaced by two brusque chords and glissandi. At any rate, the voices of just four people would have sounded a tad underwhelming. Here is a totally enjoyable disc of memorable music, memorably transcribed, and brilliantly performed. Cult status due soon.

 

This album may be purchased, downloaded or streamed at:

The Gershwin & Bernstein Connection – Navona Records

GÖTTERFUNKEN: BEETHOVEN SYMPHONY NO.9 for Two Pianos on Navona Records

GÖTTERFUNKEN

BEETHOVEN Symphony No.9

NINA SMEETS & 

ELIANE RODRIGUES, 2 Pianos

Navona Records NV 6382

 

The title comes from the first line of Friedrich Schiller’s An die Freude (Ode To Joy), which reads Freude, schöne Götterfunken in German or “Joy, beautiful sparks of God” in its English translation. This was the basis of Beethoven’s final symphony, specifically the final choral movement which the world knows and loves as Ode to Joy.

 

This album is a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in an arrangement for two pianos by Brazilian pianist Eliane Rodrigues, based on a two-piano edition by Franz Liszt from 1851. Liszt’s later version for two hands on one piano is better-known (as more recordings exist) but is a superhuman task for the performer, and excellent recordings by Cyprien Katsaris, Konstantin Scherbakov and Idil Biret are proof of that. The version for two pianos allows for more textures and details to be incorporated, especially in the densely-packed finale, besides providing a more efficient (and less taxing) division of labour on four hands. It received its premiere in 1855 at the hands of Clara Schumann and Brahms (Oh, to be a fly on the wall that day!). This new recording by Rodrigues and her daughter Nina Smeets succeeds on most counts.

 

The performance plays for 78 minutes, suggesting spaciousness, width and breadth. As many orchestral recordings clock in under 70 minutes, this one on two pianos appears protracted on initial encounter. The slow movement’s Adagio molto e cantabile does drag a little before picking up speed in the second Andante moderato onwards. It takes the best part of 19 minutes, but not a smidgen of filigreed detail is lost.

 

Elsewhere, there is expectancy and urgency. The opening movement is gripping, and the upping of tempo for the Scherzo increases the excitement. All this better prepares the ears for the Adagio. What of the Ode to Joy finale? When one does not miss the voices, the performance would have succeeded. Both Richard Wagner and Frédéric Kalkbrenner’s solo piano versions of the Ninth include solo and choral voices, but Liszt being Liszt, these almost become an irrelevance. The Rodrigues version, which includes additional textures and a curious brief interlude at the beginning of the finale’s Alla Turca episode, while not straying far from Liszt, succeeds all the same. The fugal episodes, steadily rather than hectically helmed, provide an ecstatic release.

 

This recording’s main rival is Leon McCawley and Ashley Wass on Naxos, which positively breaks the tape at 61 minutes. Rodrigues and Smeets is however swifter in the Scherzo, some indication that their version offers a greater sense of contrast. Listening to Beethoven, Fast or Slow? Take your pick, one is unlikely to be disappointed either way.