Search - Handel, Brahms, Reger :: Handel/Brahms/Reger

HARDLY SCHIFFLESS!!!!!

Melvyn M. Sobel | Freeport (Long Island), New York | 09/09/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Performances of spontaneous vitality, invention and depth grace this live recording by Andras Schiff at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam in December of 1994, all caught in remarkably exciting, immediate and realistic sound--- and, happily, sans the usual audience "ambience," vocalise and jolting applause. In the Handel Suite [HWV 434], Schiff's opening, swirling Prelude figurations are ravishing and segue quite magically into the following Sonata movement, which just as delightfully launches the zesty Aria con Variazoni (from whence Brahms takes the theme for his own Op. 24). The Menuet offers thoughtful closure. In a heartbeat, without pause, Schiff summons the opening Aria of Brahms' Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Handel--- leaping, as it were, from one century to the next in a split second. How brazen! Yet, in the pianist's hands, the temporal transition is innovative and never at musical odds. Schiff, whose studio recordings, to me, have always seemed a tad emotionally subdued, unfetters himself in this live session--- and it is telling. Brahms benefits every note along the way. As well, the formidable Reger Variations and Fugue on a Theme of J.S. Bach, Op. 81 allows Schiff even more psychological leeway--- nearly thirty-five minutes thereof--- and is a tour de force of imposing structure, scope, virtuosity and expressivity from which the pianist never flinches.[Running time: 71:21]"