Outwardly, Paderewski remains an enduring legend. The concert pianist who was also Prime Minister of his native Poland, the glamorous but dignified figure with the aureola of golden hair who waved to his admirers from a 'royal' train affording tantalizing glimpses of a noble profile, offers irresistible evidence of the most magnetic personality.
Unfortunately, such undoubted charisma (even when acclaimed by no less a distinguished figure than the late Sir Clifford Curzon) did not transfer easily to record and it is difficult to delight in performances which, despite a certain integrity and intermittent charm, are so strenuous and imprecise. Certainly, Paderewski's famous Moonlight Sonata recording hardly withstands the test of time with its substitution of cliches for genuinely re-creative ideas and its generally malign sentimentality.
In Chopin, too, where one might have expected him to shine, his playing is surely too effortful and phlegmatic to convey much of the composer's essential romanticism and volatility. The Etude in sixths (Op. 25 No. 8)—awkwardly rather than fluently negotiated—was clearly an unwise choice and sudden thundering bass reinforcements and coy dalliences elsewhere are surely diversions from the real thing. In other words, Paderewski's Chopin is essentially pre-Rubinstein (arguably the founding father of modern Chopin playing) in its elaborate de-syncronizations and lack of a truly patrician fire and elegance. Liszt is, perhaps more understandably, another casualty but so too is Rachmaninov, whose subtle and deeply Slavonic G sharp minor Prelude is treated with scant sympathy.
So it is with some relief that one turns to Strauss/Tausig and, perhaps most of all, to Wagner/Schelling for a greater sense of quality, to old-fashioned arrangements which allow Paderewski more scope for his improvisatory grandeur and exultance, his larger-than-life drama. But, placing the matter in perspective, whereas one gives Cortot the benefit of the doubt, forgiving his lapses of concentration and accuracy when they are so often transcended by a unique vivacity and personal brilliance, such transcendence is rarely achieved by Paderewski. By comparison his idiosyncrasy is unilluminating and his pianistic equipment is inadequate to the task in hand.
Admirers will have to have this disc but they should listen selectively if their cherished legend is not to become tarnished and diminished. Ward Marston's transfers of recordings dating from 1912–37 are excellent, and no less than eight out of the 14 items offered are new to Compact Disc.'