A compilation such as this would be outstanding in any context. That it comes at a time when Decca’s series of live Cherkassky recordings has not only dried up but also been deleted (shame!) makes it all the more welcome. Aficionados will not need to be told that Cherkassky was a pianist for whom the epithet ‘magician’ might have been invented. How he managed to play so freely, in every dimension of the pianist’s art, and yet (usually) without violence to the music, is something that would challenge the powers of the subtlest analyst and the most imaginative essayist to convey. Even in his favourite repertoire he seemed to be constantly surprised and enthralled by every turn the music took, while another part of his musicianship stood guarantor of coherence and inevitability. Best not to enquire too deeply. Best simply to marvel.
Not that everyone would agree with that assessment; and certainly Cherkassky’s studio recordings often found the magic dimmed. There were even live appearances that seemed to support the sceptics more than the believers. But this Chopin selection is overwhelmingly a delight. The Nocturnes float as if on a magic carpet, the Waltzes are as affectionate as they are elegant (with wicked echt-Cherkasskian voicings in the C sharp minor), the Ballades seem to follow some secret narrative thread, and the Scherzos are shot through with daring, yet never self-serving, nuances.
Total consistency is not to be expected: the end of the F minor Ballade, the central section of the Etude, and several passages in the Op 31 Scherzo are uncomfortably strenuous. Yet those very same pieces have moments of heart-stopping inspiration, and the E major Scherzo – recorded a decade ago at St John’s Smith Square on Cherkassky’s 82nd birthday – is technically the most wizardly performance of them all.
The recordings come from seven different occasions, and the quality of the instruments is variable. The pianos in London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall and, especially, the Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh sound poorly regulated, affecting three of the Nocturnes. In the Op 31 Scherzo there is even a little pre-echo on the recording. But this remains a CD to cherish, and I recommend it in preference to a thousand more ‘perfect’ ones