CD Reviews (The Straits Times, March 2014)

BEETHOVEN Piano Concertos Nos.4 & 5

JOHN BINGHAM, Piano

Singapore Symphony / CHOO HOEY

Meridian 84172 / ****

In the Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s 35^th anniversary year, it is perhaps timely to revive the fortunes of the orchestra’s first and only Beethoven recording. Occasionally remembered as the SSO’s “forgotten” disc, this also happened to be its first recording of mainstream repertory, and the first for a UK-based label. Amazingly this 1989 release of Beethoven’s Fourth and Fifth Piano Concertos with the late British pianist John Bingham, former Head of Piano at Trinity College, is still available on sale.

Choo Hoey had already trained the orchestra to be a more-than-competent accompanist and the results are palpable, with full-blooded tuttis and sensitive playing in the central slow movements. Bingham (1942-2003) studied with Stanislav Neuhaus at the Moscow Conservatory and was a rising name in concert circles. His trenchant and totally musical readings of both concertos are tempered by the marginally over-sharp tuning on the piano. Although greater recordings of both works are in plentiful supply, this one is more than just for die-hard SSO collectors and sentimentalists.

This CD is available at $23 (excluding P&P) from: www.prestoclassical.co.uk

ZAREBSKI Piano Quintet

ZELENSKI Piano Quartet

JONATHAN PLOWRIGHT, Piano

Szymanowski Quartet

Hyperion 67905 / ****1/2

The Piano Quintet in G minor by Polish composer Juliusz Zarebski (1854-1885) has gained a measure of popularity thanks to two recent recordings by Argentine-born virtuoso Martha Argerich. This recognition outside of Poland is belated for this one-time favourite student of Franz Liszt, who died from tuberculosis shortly after completing the work, which was only published in 1931. The music, though unabashedly Romantic, is harmonically adventurous, not least in the piquant Scherzo and Finale, which share the same thematic material but diverges in totally different paths.

The Piano Quartet in C minor by compatriot Wladislaw Zelenski (1837-1921) is more conventional, stemming from its influences by Schumann and Brahms. However a melancholy typical of Slavic character pervades, and the memorable opening theme could easily have come from the young Rachmaninov. British pianist and specialist in Polish music Jonathan Plowright is well supported by the Szymanowski Quartet from Poland, and the performances of both works are exemplary for their passion and emotional sweep.

CD Reviews (The Straits Times, November 2013)

ZELENSKI / ZARZYCKI

Piano Concertos

JONATHAN PLOWRIGHT, Piano

BBC Scottish Symphony / Lukasz Borowicz

Hyperion 67958 / ****1/2

How many Polish composers who came between Chopin and Szymanowski can you name? If you remembered Moszkowski, Scharwenka, Paderewski or Godowsky, that is not bad at all. Now meet Wladyslaw Zelenski (1837-1921) and Aleksander Zarzycki (1834-1895), whose names are hardly breathed outside their homeland. Both with professors and directors of the Warsaw Music Institute, leading lights of Polish musical society, with the former being the slightly better known. 

To Zelenski’s credit, his Piano Concerto in E flat major (1903) does not imitate Chopin but is anachronistic for its time, the Romantic and martial strains in the outer moments coming from an earlier age. The second movement is a moving and dramatic theme and variations filled with tension and bluster.

Zarzycki’s Piano Concerto in A flat major (1859-60), a shorter work in two movements, combines Lisztian flair with the delicious humour to be found in Saint-Saëns. Capping it is a Grand Polonaise in E flat major composed during the same period, which is every bit as good and memorable as Chopin’s own orchestrated Grand Polonaise Brillante (Op.22). British pianist Jonathan Plowright, a specialist in Polish music, gives highly spirited performances that can only win new friends for his cause. 

RACHMANINOV Isle Of The Dead

The Rock / Symphonic Dances

Bergen Philharmonic / Andrew Litton

BIS 1751 / ****1/2

This CD brings together the major orchestral works of Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943) outside of his three symphonies and choral symphony The Bells, spanning his youth, maturity and his final years. Composed in 1893, The Rock was his first major tone poem, based on a Chekhov short story The Meeting. Though resembling his mentor Tchaikovsky’s style, his flair for pathos and the dramatic is already evident. More mature is Isle Of The Dead (1909), inspired by Arnold Böcklin’s painting of the same title, coming from the same period as his Second Symphony and Third Piano Concerto. Its lugubrious opening builds up to a heady climax with some of Rachmaninov’s most ecstatic and chilling music.

Symphonic Dances (1942) was Rachmaninov’s last work, sometimes regarded to be his unnumbered symphony. Its three movements are a nostalgic glance of his forsaken homeland. Music of melancholy, a haunting Tolstoyan waltz, and the pomp of the Orthodox Church (including quotes of the medieval chant Dies Irae and his choral Vespers) make this in certain ways, his most Russian piece. Norway’s finest orchestra led by Andrew Litton (who recently guest-conducted the SSO) captures the moods and nuances perfectly.