Search - Grieg, Rachmaninoff, Cziffra :: Piano Concertos

CZIFFRA - unique Grieg and Rachmaninoff

Mr. Alan Thorpe | London | 10/25/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"It is obvious that Cziffra loved the Grieg concerto as he recorded it three times: firstly in Budapest in 1956 with the Hungarian State Orchestra and Zoltan Rozsnyai {APR 7021}; then in 1958 at London's Kingsway Hall with the Philharmonia Orchestra and André Vandernoot {EMI `Les Introuvables de Cziffra'}; and finally this present version with his beloved son György Cziffra Jr. { tragically killed in a house fire in 1981} and the Budapest Symphony Orchestra in Paris in 1969. Cziffra gives a most poetic reading of Grieg's masterpiece and never fails to respond to the tenderly heartfelt moments of the Norwegian folk song and dance inspired melodies that was Grieg's inspiration. Cziffra's quiet contemplative response to the haunting horn call that closes the slow movement is exquisitely realized as is his playing of the lyrical interlude in the otherwise rhythmically alive and exuberant Finale. Cziffra saves his `big guns' for the astoundingly played Lisztian influenced first movement cadenza {Liszt sight read the concerto when Grieg sought his advice on the piano part} and for the thrilling double octaves and exciting coda that ends the work in grandiose style. Cziffra's account can easily rank with those of Michelangeli {BBC Legends}, Curzon and Lipatti et al. Cziffra recorded Rachmaninoff's Second Concerto with his son and the New Philharmonia Orchestra at the famous Abbey Road Studios in 1970. When Rachmaninoff visited the Liszt Academy in Budapest in the 1930s and heard the child prodigy Cziffra play, he predicted a great future for him and although Cziffra admired Rachmaninoff he thought the great composer/pianists performance of Chopin's B flat minor Sonata in Budapest `lacked feeling.' Apart from the second concerto, Cziffra only recorded three pieces by Rachmaninoff: his transcriptions of a Minuet {Bizet}, Scherzo {Mendelssohn}
and in 1961 one of the finest performances of the G minor Prelude I have ever heard. Unlike Rachmaninoff's own recording of his second concerto which is beautifully lyrical but emotionally restrained, Cziffra's is just the opposite. He plays with great intensity of feeling, almost overwrought at times and with a thrilling weight and brilliance - also drawing attention to those secretive inner melodic lines. The opening flourish of the Finale is marked to be played `quasi glissando' by Rachmaninoff and Cziffra {along with a recording by Gieseking I heard recently} is the only pianist to take him literally at his word - it is simply jaw-dropping! If you like your Rachmaninoff played with great emotion, intensity of expression and colour, then you will love Cziffra's performance of this concerto in which his conductor son also persuades the orchestra to back him to the hilt. In many ways, a unique performance."

THE SINGER NOT THE SONG

DAVID BRYSON | Glossop Derbyshire England | 10/18/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"At the price this disc has to get 5 stars. Maybe it would have deserved 5 stars at three times the price, but the competition in the Grieg is phenomenal and, slightly to my surprise, Cziffra is not making any exceptional efforts to astound us.



I got this disc to improve my Cziffra collection without being assailed with more Liszt than I can put up with; so if that means yet another version of the Grieg concerto, well so be it. I already have 4 others that I would call top-class -- Cherkassky, Lipatti, Michelangeli and, by way of a change from the Great Beasts, Lympany. Normally Cziffra would stand out in any company, but oddly I have not yet found his version as distinctive as the other 4. Like Cherkassky he is grandiose as and when required, but he does not present the piece as big-scale throughout in the way Lipatti does, let alone make an outright epic of it like Michelangeli. He joins the other Great Beasts in roaring imposingly through the first movement cadenza, but even in this movement he does not make a high drama out of the opening bars, perhaps so as not to let them seem totally out of proportion with what follows or perhaps, indeed, for some completely different reason. His main tempo for the movement is quite moderate, like Cherkassky's and slower than the other three (particularly Michelangeli). Here and there you will catch the occasional flash of his super-Horowitzian fingerwork usually leaving one with the impression, which I find intensely pleasing, that he has not even noticed what he just did. However perhaps the most striking thing in this first movement is the way his son handles the hushed slow orchestral passage just before the end. I like Cziffra's innocent and natural lyric manner in general, and I like it in this slow movement, but if you want something more individual here you probably want Cherkassky or Michelangeli, the latter for some vivid birdsong effects, the former for what may be a conscious effort to avoid anything of the kind. In the last movement again Cziffra takes a moderate speed, again as distinct from Lipatti and even more so from the very urgent Michelangeli.



So how do I like the Grieg concerto played? The truthful if flippant answer is 'very rarely'. If you want barns stormed, get Michelangeli. If you want a beautiful account without grandiosity I recommend Lympany strongly, particularly to the followers of Solomon as she is a far better technician than he is. Lipatti's version is a classic of course, but for me if I were condemned to solitary confinement with the Grieg concerto I would take Cherkassky. He is quite up to the grand manner, but what puts him in a special category is the combination of a cool reflective manner with crystalline fingerwork and superb support from Boult and the LPO. As often, it comes with the Schumann in another one-of-a-kind account, notably his wonderful playing of the central andante in the first movement. The trouble is, I don't know whether he is available on CD at the moment. Curzon's version I have not heard for many years, but I remember being very impressed by it, so perhaps one should look at some up-to-date reviews of that too.



The only other account of Rachmaninov II that I owned for many years was the composer's own. Provided the composer is able to play the piece (what could R not play?) I could see no reason for having any other version -- if it was not like the composer's it would be unauthentic and if it was like the composer's why have another one? However there is still the possibility that, like Michelangeli in the 4th concerto, a certain calibre of player could actually outplay the composer so it seemed worth trying Cziffra here. It is a beautiful account as well as a virtuoso one. He is not nearly as brisk as the composer in the first movement, but I shall not be surprised if I come to like Cziffra almost as well before long. This is far better music than Grieg's effort, it is full of grand romantic emotion in the first, and particularly in the second, movement, and Cziffra has little inhibition about it. In the last movement we get our long-awaited chance to hear Cziffra being flash as only he knows how to be. If you are not yet familiar with this neglected supernova, I suggest that you could find much less beneficial uses for some loose change.

"