Search - Felix [1] Mendelssohn, Ignaz Friedman, Ludwig van Beethoven :: Friedmann: Complete Recordings, Vol. 2

The Good, the Wild and the Ugly

Anton Zimmerling | Moscow, Russia | 12/06/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Friedman's playing on this CD ranges from 'extraordinary great' to 'wayward' and even 'ugly': it is hard to find an absolutely neutral recording on this scale here. Both Chopin's studies in G flat ('Butterfly' and 'Black keys') are great. The final movements of Beethoven's 'Moonlight' sonata and Chopin's 2nd Sonata Op. 35 are stunning, but what precedes is far less exciting. Friedman's own miniatures are unsurpassed but are an acquired taste - for those who like these piano bonbons.

I agree with Mr. Morrison that Friedman's recording of Chopin's A flat major polonaise is probably the wildest performance of that piece. The wildest - yes, but not the best: Friedman frequently holds the pedal on the prolonged left hand chords and marks the rhythm very obsessively. In the Heroic Polonaise and final movements of Chopin's and Beethoven's sonata this device works, but otherwise it is not to everybody's liking. `Light' and `easy-going' are not words one is inclined to apply to Friedman's interpretations, though in less dramatic pieces he could play so. Chopin's mazurkas and encores on this CD are attractive, though later versions of the same mazurkas on vol. 3 surpass them.

As a follow-up I can add that all three movements of the Moonlight Sonata may be found on Vol. 1 of this Naxos Friedman series. The first movement begins in an enchanting way but becomes boring to the end. The second movement is in the same wayward vein as Mr. Morrison characterized it in his review, though Friedman does not mark the up beats so forcefully as here on Vol. 2. The final Presto is more slack and less effective than here.

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He'll delight and annoy you!

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 02/13/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is the second in an ongoing series of Friedman recordings; I missed the first one. Friedman can be a maddening pianist. His impulsive style of playing can be off-putting, but it can also be incredibly exciting. And one is never in doubt about his ability to get exactly the effect he is after; he was a master technician. All of the performances date from the late 1920s and are early electrical recordings.This CD contains his only extant concerto recording - a merely OK performance of the Grieg with an unidentified French orchestra conducted by Philippe Gaubert. The second movement is both more limpid and dramatic than most other versions. He also recorded the Beethoven 'Emperor' with Henry Wood, but that was never issued and probably no longer exists, alas. Some impressions: The 'Moonlight' Sonata appears _without_ its famous first movement. The second movement is simply wayward, with odd agogic accents and a mixture of staccato and legato. But the Presto is a windstorm and quite effective. The Chopin B-flat minor sonata is missing its first two movements. The sonata's funeral march is faster than usual but effective. The last movement, usually 'the wind whispering over a graveyard,' is more of a gale; it's exciting and I kept thinking 'well, why not?'The A-flat Polonaise of Chopin is one of the most exciting I know and those impossibly fleet left-hand octave scales are simply amazing. Whew! There is no question Ignaz Friedman was a force of nature and for those of us who love getting to know pianists from the so-called Golden Age, he's indispensible.As always the recorded sound is about as good as it can get with recordings that are more than seventy years old. Ward Marston, that miracle of a producer, gets enormous credit for the work he keeps putting out for Naxos in their series of historical recordings. And then there's the budget price!"