STRAUSS, Josef: Edition - Vol. 5

HILL: Symphonies Nos. 4 and 6 / The Sacred Mountain

HUMPERDINCK: Moorish Rhapsody / Sleeping Beauty

HISTORICAL ROMANCES

Friedhofer: Adventures of Marco Polo / Lodger (The)

This new release contains compositions from Hong Kong TV and Movie Classics. Violinist Takako Nishizaki is the featured soloist on this recording. The works are performed here by the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Henry Shek, Varujan Kojian, and Kenneth Jean.

Hailed by critics at the Lucerne Festival as a modern Rachmaninov and the triumphant winner of the first Rachmaninov Competition in Moscow in 1983, Konstantin Scherbakov. In addition to recitals, orchestral performances and tours all over the world, his concert activity has brought participation in major festivals, including Salzburg, Frankfurt, Bregenz, Bodensee, Lugano, Evian and Colmar. His contribution to the Naxos Liszt piano music series includes critically acclaimed performances of Liszt's transcriptions of Beethoven's Symphonies, of which the Ninth Symphony was awarded the German Critics' Prize 2005.

GODOWSKY Six Pieces for Both Hands (Concert Album). Märchen. Suite for Left Hand Alone. Prelude and Fugue for the Left Hand Alone. Moto Perpetuo. Symphonic Metamorphoses of the Schatz-Walzer Themes from The Gypsy Baron by Johann Strauss, Jr. • Konstantin Scherbakov (pn) • MARCO POLO 8225350 (74:58)


This, the 11th volume in the series devoted to the complete piano works of Leopold Godowsky performed by Konstantin Scherbakov, features some of the composer’s less well-known repertoire. And though more obscure it may be, it is no less demanding than his mainstream repertoire, if we may call any of his compositions that. Featuring some works for both hands, the main focus of this recital is the fiendishly difficult repertoire for the left hand alone. Even the first set of pieces on the program—the Six Pieces for both hands —are in fact arrangements of works which Godowsky originally conceived for just the left hand. They are so much more than just that, though—they are true reworkings in the best sense, so much so that they really should be considered different compositions. Scherbakov easily handles the numerous perils imposed by the music, his crowning achievement coming especially in the last, the “Etude Macabre,” a musico-technical nightmare consisting of an almost constant chain of three against four, shifting between right hand and left hand combinations, in addition to issues of voicing, often in middle registers, moving through a plethora of keys—it makes Chopin’s Fantasie Impromptu , with its three on four combinations, seem like a Clementi sonatina. The largest work on this recital, the Suite for Left Hand Alone (consisting of Allemande, Courante, Gavotte, Sarabande, Bourrée, Sicilienne, Menuet, and Gigue) looks like an updated Baroque suite of sorts. Godowsky was very proud of this work, saying that it had a sense of “flow, a large line, a convincing polyphony, and a melodic and harmonic inevitableness.” And though it may resemble music of yesteryear, it sounds purely of its time. It is filled with the harmonic complexity of Godowsky’s best music, the intricate polyphony, often balanced in a single hand by means of careful directions for articulation, and a lushness of conception, but one which is carefully molded never to sound sentimental. Scherbakov shows his ability here to not only handle the mechanics of this music, but to shape it into a musically convincing whole. He breathes with this music, performing these pieces as little lyrical gems, but is careful to never relinquish the inherent rhythmic drive. Equally fascinating are the Prelude and Fugue for Left Hand Alone and the Symphonic Metamorphosis on Strauss Themes , also for a single hand: while I admire his rendition of the former—surely a performance this solid, this musical of a Fugue for the Left Hand Alone is worthy of even more than just admiration—my opinion of the latter piece is that it is less convincing. Scherbakov’s Strauss seems a bit wooden, a bit too straightforward; it misses the characteristic lilt of the Viennese waltz when those themes make their appearance. The other works, the Märchen and the Moto Perpetuo (later reworked as the far more complex Toccata, op. 13) are both early works, written when the composer was not yet 20 years of age. They show already his mastery of the instrument and, some may say, the founding of his own style. Throughout Scherbakov proves to be the perfect advocate of this much-too-little-performed music. His technical abilities are never less than extraordinary, and his musical message is always at the forefront of his interpretations. This is gold-standard piano playing which should not be missed.


FANFARE: Scott Noriega

Volume 6 of Marco Polo's Leopold Godowsky cycle focuses on Schubert, or rather Godowsky's rewriting Schubert to suit his pianocentric agenda. Liszt's transcriptions of Schubert songs, for example, generally leave the original melodies and harmonies intact, and no matter how garish the textures, you sense that Schubert rather than Liszt comes first. By contrast, Godowsky seems more patronizing as a transcriber of Schubert. He can't resist adding a counterline here, retouching a harmonic progression there, and all too often missing Schubert's point. He progressively elaborates Gute Nacht's strophic verses to the point where Schubert's minor to major key change for the last verse seems immaterial rather than the masterstroke we perceive in the original, unadorned voice/piano setting. The Litanei may start out as a simple lullaby, but it gradually works its way up to the proverbial Corny Concerto (and waking the baby in the process!).

Whatever your response to this repertoire, Konstantin Scherbakov resists the easy temptation to rubato-ize and poke around these scores, playing them straight and heeding all of the composer's carefully delineated voice leadings and inner dynamics. His firm, sharply accented traversal of the bowdlerized F minor Moment Musical, for instance, may convince you more than Shura Cherkassky's cream-coated phrasing, although both approaches hold validity. Scherbakov projects the Passacaglia's cumulative trajectory with headlong sobriety and shows no strain as he decisively grasps bushels of big chords and passagework. Ultimately the music gains more from Marc-André Hamelin's more varied tonal palette and discreet, internalized rubato: you could say that he's a relaxed Rubinstein to Scherbakov's tenser Serkin. You might wish for warmer, more resonant sonics too. All told, this is another valuable addition to Scherbakov's ongoing Godowsky cycle.

--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

Leopold Godowsky is one of the wonders of music. In a world of child prodigies, Godowsky rose to fame after his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic in 1900, at age 30. He claimed to have had fewer than three months' formal piano studies in his entire life, and yet he left a legacy as a brilliant pianist. His strength was his technique, admired and studied by pianists of all genres.
This collection of transcriptions by Godowsky are as much his compositions: elaborate, playful, fantastical versions written for masters of the keyboard. It highlights his love of Rameau, and his penchant for expanding on themes of the original compositions. For instance, Godowsky's "Tambourin" is more than twice as long as the original, giving him space in which to play and develop further melodies.
Taking up the challenge is Konstantin Scherbakov, lauded by critics for his mastery of Rachmaninov, Strauss, Beethoven and Respighi, among others. His technique honed on a repertoire of forty concertos and an equal number of recital programs, Scherbakov is working with Marco Polo to record all of Godowsky's piano music.

GLAZUNOV: Piano Music, Vol. 4

Leopold Godowsky's 1925 Java Suite consists of 12 piano pieces inspired by the sights and sounds he absorbed during his Indonesian concert tour. For the most part, Godowsky consciously avoided the serpentine chromaticism of his controversial Chopin Etude transcriptions, favoring a more modal, impressionistic, and open-ended harmonic language. Furthermore, the rich, loquacious sonorities of the traditional Gamelan orchestra add a new and original dimension to Godowsky's polytextural keyboard deployment. Konstantin Scherbakov offers the cycle's second complete recording; the first featured Jakartan native Esther Budiardjo on a 2000 ProPiano release that may be hard to find.

Godowsky prefaces each piece with programmatic descriptions that actually prove useful in helping performers establish mood and character, and I sense that Scherbakov takes these to heart. In the opening selection, Gamelan, Scherbakov's dry, highly articulated playing contrasts to Budiardjo's languid shimmer. He takes No. 4 (Chattering Monkeys at the Sacred Lake of Wendit) considerably faster than Budiardjo, although he sacrifices tone and line for speed. But whereas Budiardjo is literal and square in No. 5 (Borobudur in Moonlight), Scherbakov's more flexible treatment wrings more allure and mystery from the murky opening measures and truly ignites the central climax. By favoring line over mass in No. 6 (The Bromo Volcano), Scherbakov's gaunt, sparely pedaled interpretation decisively cuts through the thick textures, while in No. 8 (The Gardens of Buitenzorg) he emphasizes inner voices that the smoother interpretations of Marc-André Hamelin and Stephen Hough play down.

In Godowsky's paraphrase on Wine, Women and Song, Scherbakov admittedly gives short shrift to some of the transcriber's tempo indications, yet his sharp-edged, muscular, and supremely delineated rendition is quite a piece of workmanship. And unlike Shura Cherkassky's more charming, impish performances, Scherbakov plays the transcription without cuts. A slightly metallic hue covers the loudest, busiest passages; otherwise the close, detailed sonics are fine.

--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com

Includes work(s) by Josef Strauss. Ensemble: Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductor: Christian Pollack.

STRAUSS, Josef: Edition - Vol. 16

STRAUSS I, J.: Edition - Vol. 2