Search - Cesar Franck, Ernest Bloch, Vittorio Giannini :: Silberstein plays Franck, Bloch and Giannini

By far the best recording on CD of Bloch's masterful Piano S

Discophage | France | 02/26/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Aside from serving as a nice calling card for the young virtuoso Myron Silberstein (20 years old at the time of this recording), the unity of this disc is not immediately obvious. The link between Franck (1822-1890) and Bloch (1880-1959) is fairly clear, as Bloch was a pupil of Franck's pupil Ysaye in his early years in Brussels, and Bloch's sonata does make use the cyclic form so dear to Franck, with the return in the finale of the melodic elements of the first movement. Another link between the three composers featured on this disc could be their striving to organize and control their romantically passionate inspiration into the classical and time-honored forms of prelude & fugue, variations and sonata. But Vittorio Giannini (1903-1966) - a name I had not encountered before - seems the odd-man out, here, and not only in terms of notoriety. Although born in Philadelphia, his compositional outlook is rooted in the Italian operatic tradition. That said, the two sets on this disc present him in a sterner aspect. His Prelude and Fughetta (written in the late 50s) auspiciously starts with flurry of notes reminiscent of Copland's or Dutilleux' Piano Sonatas, and continues with a terse Fughetta which is also stylistically close to the more "serious" and lean Copland of the Sonata and Piano Variations, or to Hindemith. I don't find it very personal and memorable, but it makes for an appealing listening. But to my ears, the Variations on a Cantus Firmus (1947), though full of grand pianistic gestures (the "Toccata" is quite impressive), less interestingly inhabit the stylistic world of Reger and Busoni. I find its language not much more advanced than Franck's in his Prelude, Chorale and Fugue of 1884.



It is for the magnificent Bloch Piano Sonata that I bought this disc, and here, Silberstein is shoulders above the (scanty) CD competition, represented by Istvan Kassai (Ernest Bloch: Piano Works (Complete) Vol. 2, part of his indispensable complete survey of Bloch's piano music on 2 Marco Polo discs), John Jensen (Carl Ruggles, Ernest Bloch, Paul Reale, Larry Lipkis: Piano Sonatas and other works, Music & Arts) and Margaret Fingerhut (Visions and Prophecies: piano music of Ernest Bloch, Chandos). The Sonata is not nearly often recorded as its worth would warrant. Some say that Bloch didn't write idiomatically for the piano and that his compositional thought and textures were too orchestral. But why should a piano be like bare bones? His piano sonata sounds entirely idiomatically Blochian, with its rich textures and lush melismatas, its epic gestures and stark grandeur. You can hear therein, just as in his famous Schelomo, the imaginary sound-world of the Old Testament. Bloch has found an entirely personal and original language within the confines of enlarged tonality, associated to a dramaturgy of tension and repose brought to breathtaking effectiveness. Silberstein masters to perfection this wide variety of moods and transitions. The "Maestoso ed energico" opening of the first movement is wonderfully atmospheric and sensuous (the 2:07 it takes Silberstein to get through the section, compared to Kassai's 1:41 and Fingerhut's 1:42, are very telling), and the ensuing, angry "Animato" is fiery and fast moving, which entails the loss of some details of articulation, but with the gain of an unequalled dramatic tension. In the central and mysteriously sensuous "Pastorale", Silberstein wonderfully conjures the impressionistic echoes from Debussy's "La Cathédrale Engloutie", thanks to atmospheric pedalling and beautiful control of the dynamic nuances, as well as a fine sense of architecture, marked by a willingness to animate the tempo in the more dramatic passages. In comparison, the others sound flaccid and stately. By adopting a more animated tempo than that prescribed by the composer, Silberstein turns the Finale into a triumphant march rather than a grandiose and solemn one. The approach doesn't invalidate the more imposing and stark Kassai (at the tempo prescribed by the composer), but it produces a hair-raising tension that is, superficially at least, highly effective, even if the cost is again a certain loss of some articulation details. This recording of the Bloch alone warrants the mandatory purchase of this CD.



Silberstein seems to be a multi-faceted and multi-talented artist and person, now actively pursuing composition, while also working on his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago's School of Social Thought (his academic studies also include Sanskrit translation and psychoanalytic theory). The drawback of all these activities is that apparently he has ceased his career and recording activities as a concert pianist. A pity, in view of the resounding quality of this "introductory statement" - and hopefully not final.

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