Festival du Comminges, 19/08/2019
Arensky : Suite No. 2 "Silhouettes"
Tchaikovsky : The Nutcracker - Suite
Borodin : Prince Igor - Polovtsian Dances
Rachmaninoff : Suite No. 2
Ludmila Berlinskaya / Arthur Ancelle, pianos
This was a lovely programme of Russian music for two pianos, half of it original compositions, the other half transcriptions. The two ballet scores were the best known works, of course, Ann Almond Pope being the transcriber for the Borodin, but the Tchaikovsky going uncredited (although, interestingly, Arensky transcribed the Nutcracker Suite for piano four hands). The Borodin was given a lively reading, slightly disrupted by two pauses, as if to indicate movements, where the orchestral score plays uninterrupted. In the Tchaikovsky, Berlinskaya and Ancelle had a minor tendency to let the tempo run away with them a little, but there was much charm in the suite as a whole. Of all the pieces, the Arabian Dance is probably the one that works the least well, simply because the silken-soft murmur of the orchestration doesn't transfer all that successfully to the fundamentally percussive nature of the piano, no matter how quietly played. The Waltz of the Flowers, on the other hand, was a magnificent, giddy whirl, its treatment connecting strongly to the Arensky and Rachmaninoff Suites that framed the evening.
Arensky was a near-contemporary of Glazunov, but died early, at 44, leaving a fairly consequent but much overlooked opus in a similar kind of transitional style. There's a hint, in Arensky, that had he lived longer his music might have modernised further than it did, where Glazunov starts to sound distinctly old-fashioned after the turn of the century. His music is perhaps most distinctive in chamber form, and the four suites for two pianos are a particular feature, a cornerstone of the repertory for that formation. The 2nd Suite is a set of five vignettes, the "Silhouettes" of the suite's title, commencing with a po-faced, Bach-inspired exercise in counterpoint immediately followed by a delightfully frivolous waltz, which is typical of the strong contrasts between the pieces.
Rachmaninoff, ten years Arensky's junior, was also his student at the Moscow Conservatory, during which time he wrote the first of his two suites for two pianos, quite shortly after Arensky completed "Silhouettes". The 2nd Suite came six or seven years later, but it's still possible to hear the influence of the teacher in the handling of the material; melodic lines swathed in a rich and intricate embroidery of scales and arpeggios, and clouds of trills. The piano texture is dense and opulent in both cases, though Rachmaninoff's melodic gift is more immediately appealing than Arensky's. The 2nd Suite is not as picturesque as the 1st, its movements are not explicitly linked to works of literature and specific scenes, but it certainly does not lack character.
I've heard more precise partnerships than Berlinskaya and Ancelle, there were a lot of 'scuffed' notes, but then, there were a lot of notes altogether, it has to be admitted, and more to the point, there was a real sense of enjoyment in the playing, which made it a pleasure to hear.
[Next: 7th September]
Tchaikovsky : The Nutcracker - Suite
Borodin : Prince Igor - Polovtsian Dances
Rachmaninoff : Suite No. 2
Ludmila Berlinskaya / Arthur Ancelle, pianos
This was a lovely programme of Russian music for two pianos, half of it original compositions, the other half transcriptions. The two ballet scores were the best known works, of course, Ann Almond Pope being the transcriber for the Borodin, but the Tchaikovsky going uncredited (although, interestingly, Arensky transcribed the Nutcracker Suite for piano four hands). The Borodin was given a lively reading, slightly disrupted by two pauses, as if to indicate movements, where the orchestral score plays uninterrupted. In the Tchaikovsky, Berlinskaya and Ancelle had a minor tendency to let the tempo run away with them a little, but there was much charm in the suite as a whole. Of all the pieces, the Arabian Dance is probably the one that works the least well, simply because the silken-soft murmur of the orchestration doesn't transfer all that successfully to the fundamentally percussive nature of the piano, no matter how quietly played. The Waltz of the Flowers, on the other hand, was a magnificent, giddy whirl, its treatment connecting strongly to the Arensky and Rachmaninoff Suites that framed the evening.
Arensky was a near-contemporary of Glazunov, but died early, at 44, leaving a fairly consequent but much overlooked opus in a similar kind of transitional style. There's a hint, in Arensky, that had he lived longer his music might have modernised further than it did, where Glazunov starts to sound distinctly old-fashioned after the turn of the century. His music is perhaps most distinctive in chamber form, and the four suites for two pianos are a particular feature, a cornerstone of the repertory for that formation. The 2nd Suite is a set of five vignettes, the "Silhouettes" of the suite's title, commencing with a po-faced, Bach-inspired exercise in counterpoint immediately followed by a delightfully frivolous waltz, which is typical of the strong contrasts between the pieces.
Rachmaninoff, ten years Arensky's junior, was also his student at the Moscow Conservatory, during which time he wrote the first of his two suites for two pianos, quite shortly after Arensky completed "Silhouettes". The 2nd Suite came six or seven years later, but it's still possible to hear the influence of the teacher in the handling of the material; melodic lines swathed in a rich and intricate embroidery of scales and arpeggios, and clouds of trills. The piano texture is dense and opulent in both cases, though Rachmaninoff's melodic gift is more immediately appealing than Arensky's. The 2nd Suite is not as picturesque as the 1st, its movements are not explicitly linked to works of literature and specific scenes, but it certainly does not lack character.
I've heard more precise partnerships than Berlinskaya and Ancelle, there were a lot of 'scuffed' notes, but then, there were a lot of notes altogether, it has to be admitted, and more to the point, there was a real sense of enjoyment in the playing, which made it a pleasure to hear.
[Next: 7th September]