Volume 25 Issue 7 - April 2020

Prokofiev – Piano Sonatas Nos. 6, 7 & 8
Steven Osborne
Hyperion CDA688298 (hyperion-records.co.uk)
!!
With three gritty, strenuous piano sonatas
that run the gamut of expression in movements
now dreamy and languid, now
pungent and divisive, Scottish pianist Steven
Osborne proves yet again that he can tackle
any corner of the piano repertory with technical
prowess and innate stylistic aplomb.
In this new disc, Osborne rips into some
of the most challenging keyboard music
ever written by Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev. The challenges
here extend far beyond the thorniness of the sonatas’ character and
their assembled identity as three war sonatas, (Opp.82, 83 and 84),
written during the years 1939 through 1944. These broad and complex
works demand an acute understanding of modernist expression and
its concept of human experience when stretched to the very edge.
This edge can be extreme in some cases, compelling both listener
and pianist alike to embrace the ridiculous as well as the sublime. A
successful performance of such music depends on the wits (and technique!)
of a multi-versed artist up to the challenge. Osborne leaves
us with no doubt as to our emotional survival: we immediately jump
onboard for the ride, putting ourselves in his safekeeping until the
end of this disc. Therein, Osborne’s hands cast spells of colour and
light that echo the deft craft of impressionist composers, betraying
a kinship (rarely revealed) between the inspired music of turn-ofthe-century
France and that generation of Russian modernists who
emerged in the 1920s, with Prokofiev at the vanguard.
Adam Sherkin
Samuil Feinberg – Piano Sonatas Nos. 1-6
Marc-André Hamelin
Hyperion CDA 68233 (hyperion-records.co.uk)
! ! Wondrous and fair, is the music of
Russian composer-pianist, Samuil Feinberg.
Today, 58 years after his death, he remains
little known outside of Russia. Nevertheless,
veteran virtuoso Marc-André Hamelin has
long championed the ravishing piano catalogue
of Feinberg, peppering his own
recital programs with his music. Now, for
the first time in a truly voluminous discography,
Hamelin has recorded six sonatas by Feinberg, Opp.1, 2, 3, 6, 10
and 13. Each one is a marvel of pianistic craft, gazing down from the
pinnacle of early 20th-century Russian lineage.
Both the first and second sonatas owe a great deal to the spectrums
of resonance and open-hearted romanticism found in Rachmaninoff’s
piano writing, (in particular the Sonata No.2 in B-flat Minor Op.36).
These works gleam with whimsical, searching melodies, buoyed up
by formidable textures. Hamelin aptly leads the adventure, taking the
utmost care and cultivation. In fact, Hamelin navigates every page of
these fascinating, singular pieces with splendid ease and confidence.
He finds ways to personalize the expressive potential Feinberg embeds
in his scores.
Another highlight of the disc, Feinberg’s Sonata No.5, invites us
into an eerie, unsettled world. The opening rollicks with overwrought
chords that grope and sniff their way through the dark. What – or
whom – might they be seeking? This disc bears repeated listening,
as is so often the case with Hamelin’s artistry. Verily, today’s musical
world would be a dimmer place without him.
Adam Sherkin
VOCAL
Rossini – Zelmira
Soloists; Górecki Chamber Choir, Krakow;
Virtuosi Brunensis; Gianluigi Gelmetti
Naxos 8.660468-70 (naxosdirect.com)
!!
Dating from
1822, Zelmira is the
33rd of Rossini’s
39 operas and the
last one he wrote in
Naples. By that time
he was aiming for
international attention,
first step to be
Vienna. Zelmira achieved great success there
and later in Paris, but inexplicably it fell out
of public favour and simply disappeared for
nearly two centuries. By a stroke of luck in
1995, Richard Bonynge and Joan Sutherland
found the score in an antique bookshop in
Paris and it was quickly bought by the Pesaro
Festival and triumphantly performed there
with a stellar cast.
The reason for the disfavour was Rossini’s
attempt to reconcile Italian and German styles
by devising new harmonies and orchestral
effects, no doubt to please Vienna audiences,
but unfortunately it was too unusual for
Italians. Too bad, because it’s a tremendous
grand opera with magnificent, original and
highly inspired music and great opportunities
for singers; particularly for the two principal
tenors and the lead soprano (written for
Rossini’s wife, Isabella Colbran).
The story takes us to the Age of Antiquity,
to Lesbos on the Aegean Sea. It revolves
around the king’s daughter Zelmira, who
after many vicissitudes, false accusations and
even prison, saves her father, and her son,
from wicked usurpers to the throne. The main
villain is Antenore, secondo tenore (American
tenor Joshua Stewart) with a tremendously
difficult tessitura, full of powerful high notes
à la Rossini. He comes to the stage first, but
just you wait for the primo tenore, Ilo, prince
of Troy and Zelmira’s husband (sung by
Turkish virtuoso Mert Süngü), and his first
cavatina – Cara! deh attendimi! – with even
more hair-raising vocal acrobatics.
Silvia Dalla Benetta is Zelmira. She crowns
it all with her superb voice and is thoroughly
enchanting in Perché mi guardi e piangi,
one of Rossini’s most inspired creations. All
wonderfully held together and conducted by
veteran Rossinian maestro Gianluigi Gelmetti.
Janos Gardonyi
Leoš Janáček – From the House of the Dead
Bayerisches Staatsorchester and Chorus;
Simone Young
BelAir Classiques BAC173
(naxosdirect.com)
!!
Janáček’s From
the House of the
Dead is a gripping
dramatic work.
The last opera he
composed, this
adaptation of
Dostoyevsky’s novel
premiered in 1930,
two years after
Janáček’s death,
with an orchestration
completed
by two of his students. From the House of
the Dead is notable for a number of reasons,
including the use of chains as percussion in
the orchestra (to reflect the sounds of the
prisoners shuffling back and forth) and the
lack of narrative content; there is no overarching
storyline, but rather a number of
episodic narratives relating to individual prisoners
interspersed with occurrences within
the prison itself.
This video release from the Bayerische
thewholenote.com April 2020 | 55