Search - Giacinto Scelsi, Luciano Berio, Luigi Dallapiccola :: The Modern Italian Piano

A respectful dissent

Thomas F. Dillingham | Columbia, Missouri USA | 01/05/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The other two reviewers speak of only one piece by Dallapiccola, and they find Elisabeth Klein's performance seriously deficient. I have no basis for comparison, since hers is the only performance I know of that particular piece, though I am familiar with a lot of Dallapiccola's music and have heard many performances of his other piano music. But neither would I judge the whole CD on the basis of one piece, nor would I agree that her performance of "Quaderno musicale" lacks beauty. I do not have a score to check the markings, so I won't dispute that she may depart from his specified performance values, but will wait for an opportunity to hear another performance.



In the meantime, however, there are works by Scelsi and Berio on the disc, and I have some basis of comparison for several of those. I think Elisabeth Klein's performances of those works are rich, thoughtful, and rewarding, and not at all subject to the complaints registered with reference to only one piece. As is the case with Klein's fine performances of music by Schoenberg, Webern, Berg, Dessau, Eisler, and especially Stockhausen, there is much to enjoy in her interpretations of Berio and Scelsi and Evangelisti, and I would rank this CD much higher and would encourage listeners to hear these unfamiliar but beautiful works of the modern piano repertoire."