The hummer that dare not mention his name/French Suites

[Jim Morrison <jim_morrison@sprynet.com>]

Hello F minor

What follows is a breif review from the Gramophone site of the Goldberg
Variations as performed by Koroliov.  Our hero makes a brief disguised
appearance in the review.



Goldberg Variations, BWV988 Evgeni Koroliov pf









 Hanssler Classic Edition Bachakadamie (Mid  price) CD92 112 (85 minutes:
DDD)









 Koroliov follows his outstanding recording of Bach's Art of Fugue, reviewed
1/00, with a noteworthy reading of the Goldberg Variations







 With more than 50 recordings now current - no fewer than six new ones
appearing in the last year - and more on the horizon, the Goldberg
Variations seems to be at risk of rivalling Vivaldi's Four Seasons in the
popularity stakes - a situation that would have astounded the musical world
only half a century ago. The present performance, by a prizewinner at
several Bach competitions, ranks well among those available: full of
vitality (except in the famous 'black pearl' variation, which at 11 minutes
is more funereal than either Landowska or Tureck - though the listing tries
to conceal this by showing it at 1'09"!), Koroliov brings to repeats
constant variations of articulation (staccato instead of legato, and vice
versa), dynamics, phrasing and emphasis on individual voices, as well as
incorporating different ornamentation.





 A few of his speeds are disconcerting - too fast in Variations 5 and 20 for
harpsichord music, even though it's played on the piano, very slow and
emotional in the first minor variation (No 15) - and his normally firm
rhythmic control (tempered by just the right amount of flexibility)
temporarily suffers from a sentimental rubato in the canon at the seventh.
Yes, there are lapses from the ideal, but there are so many plus points in
this clean-fingered performance that it deserves serious consideration.
However, like another famous interpreter of the Goldberg Variations, though
not so obtrusively or irritatingly, the artist hums along with himself. Dare
I suggest that for future recordings - to which I look forward with great
interest - the recording producer might gently gag him?





 Lionel Salter


Jim Here.  What follows from here are a few reviews of the French Suites
that Daniel and others may find interesting.  Like him, I'm not thrilled
with Gould's performance of those peices, and also like him, I'm not very
familiar with any other's either.   Rubusm is decent, if you like Rubusm's
gentle and somewhat "staggering" way of playing.  I'd love to hear someone
elses recommendations.





Bach French [Suite] Suites [No.] Nos. 1-6, BWV812-817. From 73393 (5/75).
Partita in B minor, BWV831 (Overture in the French style) (new to UK). Glenn
Gould (pf).









 CBS Masterworks (Full price) (LP) M2 39099 (two records, nas) (Cassette)
M2T 39099.







 Bach's 'French Suites' are relatively intimate pieces, more so, at least,
than the partitas or 'English Suites', and Gould does not respond well to
their most intimate and expressive movements. These are the sarabandes, and
the famous one in Suite No. 5 is nearly caricatured. Yet the same work's
Loure receives an intriguing and original performance, and elsewhere much
superlative playing can be found. This is especially so in the allemandes
and courantes which open each suite-hear the lithe grace, for example, of
the initial movements of Suites Nos. 2, 3 and 5. The closing gigues, also,
are quite marvellous in their exuberant clarity and intellectual fire, above
all that belonging to Suite No. 5. Just as admirable are the gavottes, where
they occur, Gould playing them with an exact decisiveness. Splendid, too, is
the contained force of Suite No. 3's Anglaise and the Aria of No. 4.





 All this we first heard a decade ago, but the French Overture is new to the
local catalogue. Its recording dates from the same 1971-3 period as the
suites yet creates a number of different impressions. The opening and
closing grave sections of the first movement are mannered, but the long
central quick section is superbly energetic and precise, tingling with
excitement. Surprisingly heavy and slow are the courante and gigue, very
different from their opposite numbers in the suites. In between come pairs
of gavottes, passepieds and bourrees, all strongly characterized and very
enjoyable.





 MH


Six French [Suite] Suites, BWV812-17. Andrei Gavrilov (pf).









 DG (Full price) (CD) 445 840-2GH2 (two discs: 93 minutes: DDD).









 Bach Six French [Suite] Suites, BWV812-17 a. Overture (Partita) in the
French style in B minor, BWV831 b. Glenn Gould (pf).









 Sony Classical Glenn Gould Edition (Mid  price) (CD) SM2K52609 (two discs:
85 minutes: ADD). Items marked a from CBS 73373 (5/75), b 39099 (10/85).







 Life is full of surprises, particularly when they are musical. Who would
have thought that of these two pianists (a description Gould despised,
impishly referring to himself as a musician who played the piano in his
spare time) it is Gavrilov who is the more consistently poised and interior,
the more anxious to give Bach his due? Like others before him (including
Andras Schiff) he acknowledges his debt to Gould, sensing a fellow spirit
throwing down the gauntlet and challenging convention at every turn with his
fearless mix of directness and idiosyncrasy. Yet as his performances so
eloquently convey, there are depths and subtleties in these ever-fascinating
cosmopolitan Suites (the 'French' sobriquet is misleading) often erased by
Gould's manic determination to redefine the parameters of Bach
interpretation.





 Gavrilov has a way, for instance, of casting a harsh and clinical light on
even the simplest, least polyphonic of the composer's arguments. He may
retain some of his former headstrong pugnacity yet in the Sarabandes, which
like pools of reflection form the nodal and expressive centre of each Suite,
he finds an often glorious ease, repose and gently luminous sense of
texture. Even those for whom such open-hearted espousal of the modern
piano's resources ("the piano wins hands down" exclaims Gavrilov of tired
arguments concerning harpsichord versus piano) is anachronistic will surely
be touched and convinced. And regarding authenticity, are Gould's
arpeggiations in the Sarabande from the First Suite acceptable and, even
given his arm-twisting arguments in his defence, does not the Sarabande from
the Third Suite come to seem infuriatingly mannered, particularly on
repetition? Predictably there are moments when Gould has the razor's edge
over Gavrilov and, indeed, every other pianist, when it comes to clarity and
dexterity. Yet even in the volleys of notes in, say, the Courante from the
Sixth Suite, his dayglo, acidic brilliance is more arresting than poetically
engaging.





 Comparisons may be odious, particularly where Gould is concerned, yet it is
surely Gavrilov (both he and Gould a far cry from Joanna MacGregor's recent,
more domestic, soft-focus recording for Collins, 2/94), with his salutary
respect for all repeats and DG's exemplary sound, who wins the day. If Gould
rather than Bach is your chief concern then you will have no hesitation. Yet
even Gould's greatest admirers (of which I am one) may well find that such
compulsive egotism has a way of diminishing rather than augmenting one's
sense of Bach's stature. From Gavrilov the opposite is true. Touchingly and
endearingly and by his own admission, he sees Bach as "the key to
comprehending the universe".





 BM







----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----

Bach French [Suite] Suites, BWV812-7 a. English Suite No. 3 in G minor,
BWV808 b. Concerto in the Italian style, "Italian Concerto", BWV971 b. a
Andrei Gavrilov, b Stanislav Bunin (pfs).









 EMI Forte (Mid  price) (CD) CZS5 69479-2 (two discs: 126 minutes: DDD).
Item marked a from EX270173-3 (6/85), b CDD7 63904-2 (7/91).









 French [Suite] Suites - selected comparisons:








 Schiff (10/93) (DECC) 433 313-2DH2








 Gavrilov (7/95) (DG) 445 840-2GH2






 Here are two exuberant young Russians bringing an irrepressible brio and
affection to Bach. It is particularly good to find Andrei Gavrilov's EMI
discs edging back into the catalogue with their drive and volatility, their
often engulfing brilliance. More familiar in the romantic virtuoso
repertoire Gavrilov (who takes the lion's share of the proceedings on this
handsomely presented two-disc set) has always maintained a special affection
for Bach, glorying in the whirl of contrapuntal play and in those deep pools
of reflection at the heart of the suites, in the Sarabandes and, to take one
notable instance, the glorious Loure from the Fifth French Suite. Here you
are made more than conscious of a pianist in rapt communion with Bach's
spirit. The odd romantic dalliance, together with EMI's slightly dated and
opaque sound, seem marginal prices to pay for such musical quality.





 However, Gavrilov's masterful way with Bach's more extrovert writing raises
some questions. Doubtless, most pianists would give an eye - or even a
finger - to play the closing Gigue from the Third French Suite with such
imperious force and assurance yet, in retrospect, Gavrilov's super-charged
bravura surely amounts to a form of musical immaturity. And while his desire
to rescue Bach from the Groves of Academe is laudable on one level it is
doubtful on another. His ebullience in the scintillating Gigue from the
Fifth French Suite in G major is hard to resist, yet you only have to listen
to, say, Andras Schiff, in the same movement or, indeed, to Gavrilov in his
later DG recording, to hear something more buoyant and refreshing, less
thunderous and insistent. The Gigue from the Second French Suite is even
more belligerent, its dotted rhythm convoluted at such a pace, and the
entire reading close to an unamiable caricature.





 Yet having queried what seem to me the excesses of this toreador of the
keyboard, I shall still return to all these performances for their sheer
propulsion and energy and, more importantly, for their moving response to
Bach's introspection. Bunin's performances are scarcely less commanding and,
if anything, even more characterful. And so although purists will steer
clear, others will rejoice in such untrammelled zest, enthusiasm and
individuality.





 BM


Jim again.  And as a final note on this rather cut and pasty email, here's a
review of the WTC by Koroliov, who's sound may resemble Gould's.  Anyone
heard this disc?



Bach Das wohltemperierte Klavier - Book 1, BWV846-869 Evgeni Koroliov pf









 Tacet (Full price) TACET93 (129 minutes: DDD)









 The third release this year to show Koroliov as a Bach player of taste and
insight









 Selected comparison:






 Fischer (EMI) CHS5 67214-2





 How do you like your Bach? It really is down to a question of taste because
no composer is more impervious to the vagaries of interpretation than Bach.
Play him as you will and he remains obstinately in character. Play his
keyboard music on a piano and the same thing happens, though proponents of
the harpsichord may disagree. Yet a short while ago, musicologist Eva
Badura-Skoda threw a spanner in the works by arguing strongly that Bach, in
his Leipzig years, had extensively used fortepianos in an effort to help
Silbermann perfect these instruments. A pianoforte was the next step, after
all.





 Edwin Fischer used it in the first-ever recording of the 48. But his
approach and emendations have their detractors. Koroliov's only audible
emendation is an extra note in the bass at bar 28 of the C minor Prelude.
Otherwise he sticks to the text and his decorations at the endings of a
couple of pieces are well within current knowledge of authentic practice.
What intrigues and impresses is that unlike most pianists, Koroliov largely
ignores the sustaining pedal. He often prefers to let fingers, rather than
feet, dictate colour; and his fingers are capable of a variety of touch.
They can also project the notes with pinpoint velocity which, when wrongly
applied, turns the G major Fugue into a mechanical exercise. At Koroliov's
speed, the swinging nature of 6/8 time is transformed into a hasty 3/4; and
a wittily gracious piece becomes graceless. This is a serious
miscalculation, but it is the only one.





 The instrument is closely miked. It can lead to moments of discomfort, for
instance in the A minor Fugue which is starkly presented. But Koroliov isn't
always uncompromising, and the B flat minor Prelude offers an example of his
sensitivity to the changes within a single work, from rigorous beginnings to
a resigned ending. The composer's intention, to prepare the listener for the
sepulchral quality of the companion Fugue, is respected. Koroliov reserves
his best for the last pair for which, unusually, Bach added markings,
Andante and Largo respectively. Unusually, too, the Prelude is in binary
form, though Koroliov only repeats the first half. But his performance of
the Fugue marries tension to an inexorable flow that portrays the structure
as an imposing edifice. Purists may quibble at the very slow tempo but this
is a tour de force of penetrating interpretation.





 Nalen Anthoni