Dutilleux - Piano Sonata/Keuris - Piano Sonata/Bartok - 4 Dirges/Franck: Prelude, Chorale and Fugue

Tonight a mixed piano recital with strong French connotations. The Dutilleux Sonate to start with. Dating from 1947, it's effectively his opus 1, written for and premiered by his spouse Geneviève Joy. It's modernistic, but accessible, with jazzy overtones (particularly in the first movement) and intimations of early Messiaen (in the impressionistic Lied). The final movement is a fine chorale and variations. Brian Ganz, who in 1991 won a third prize at the Elisabeth Competition, plays well enough but he his not helped by the Accord engineers who produced a very annoyingly boxy and lifeless sound for this recital. (At barely 40 minutes for the Sonata, the Preludes and the Resonances it's also a frightfully short disc).

The Keuris Sonata is a short piece (8') composed in 1970. I really can't find a sonata structure back in this jumble of disjointed and improvisatory themes and rhythms. Harmonically, though, it sits quite comfortably next to the Dutilleux. The reading by René Eckhardt (who is with Asko/Schönberg) manages to keep the attention throughout. An excellent recording it is too.

The Bartok Dirges (op 9a, from 1910) are curious pieces. Apparently based on Romanian mourning songs, they seem to have a lot of Debussy too. Alexei Lubimov plays one of the four pieces on his ECM recital "Der Bote". A beautifully evocative reading. I also listened to György Sandor's 1963 recording on the Vox label as part of a super-budget 5CD set. The transfers have not been terribly successful, with significant distortion and a rather boomy bass. But Sandor's conviction and artistry shines through, nevertheless.

Then onwards to Franck's Prelude, Chorale and Fugue (1884), a marvelous piece from the late romantic piano repertoire. I have a Nimbus recording of the late Cherkassky (recorded in 1987) in my collection. The purist single microphone recording technique makes for quite a shock after all the close miked stuff. It's very resonant and one has to concentrate to picture the piano in a large room to make the sound palatable. There seems also to be a muddying of the sound picture in the lower-mid frequencies. That being said, I love this reading of a grand piece which must have fitted the abilities of the ageing virtuoso hand in glove. I also listened to the chorale and fugue as played by Kissin who convincingly spans a broad canvas of almost imperial grandeur and devotional lyricism.