Search - Frederic Chopin, Ottorino Respighi, Rudolf Kempe :: Chopin: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra; Respighi: Pini di Roma

A Slightly Odd Coupling, But Satisfying

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 07/29/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Ukraine-born Shura Cherkassky (1911-1995) came to the US in the wake of the Russian revolution and ultimately studied with Josef Hofmann at the Curtis Institute. He began making recordings as early as 1924, a child prodigy. His style of playing, while elegant and romantic, incorporated some of the more modern sensibility associated with pianists of his generation and younger. He was known as a Chopin player of great distinction, and this recording of the Second Piano Concerto of Chopin bears that out. His style of playing was always distinctively his own and often was full of surprises. This is particularly noticeable here in the makeweight recording of the Fantaisie in F Minor, Op. 49, where he tends to play climaxes more softly than expected and to use less pedal than generally heard. Still this is an exciting performance. The same is true of the Second Concerto, although it is rather more straight ahead than the Fantaisie. Of particular note is his pearly tone and, strange to say, I was very impressed by his way with ornaments, those written-out mordents and turns so common in Chopin; they are crisp, cleanly articulated and slightly emphasized in a way I'd never quite heard before. His touch is feathery in the many patches of filigree in this much-loved concerto. The dynamic range is wide, but much of the playing is on the soft side, emphasizing the poetry over the drama. The Royal Philharmonic under Rudolf Kempe plays so beautifully that one is drawn to pay attention to the orchestral accompaniment more than one often is in this concerto. Chopin's orchestration is often criticized but Kempe's orchestra has no muddy or indistinct moments as is so often heard in this concerto.



This CD is surely the only coupling of the Chopin concerto with Respighi's 'Pines of Rome' in recording history. I'm not quite sure why Gunter Hanssler's Profil label chose to couple the two pieces, but the Respighi is certainly worthy of reissuing. Both these recordings were made for Reader's Digest in the mid-1960s and I believe they have been reissued subsequently on various labels, although I don't think either is currently available otherwise. 'Pines of Rome' is given a stunningly virtuosic performance by the Royal Philharmonic and although perhaps not as brilliant as Toscanini/NBC Symphony's earlier recording, it is certainly in that league. The solo work by the orchestra -- and there is lots of it in this brilliantly orchestrated tone poem -- is played with great elan. This is definitely a 'Pines of Rome' to have.



The sound is of its time, although a lot better and more life-like than many 1960s recordings tend to be. I suspect there has been some remastering but one does not hear dynamic or frequency alterations.



Scott Morrison"