Koch’s enterprising Marek Edition continues apace with this absorbing and extremely generous programme, the lion’s share of which dates from the years 1911-13, when the talented young pianist-composer was based in Vienna (where he studied theory under Zemlinsky and was a private pupil of Paderewski’s teacher, the legendary Theodore Leschetizky). The most immediately striking offering here has to be the Op. 8 Triptychon (published as Triptyque), which comprises a Prelude, Fantasia and Chorale, each of which is linked to a fugue. We know that Busoni’s Fantasia contrappuntistica of 1910 made a profound impression on the teenage Marek, and the present triptych would seem to represent his own personal assimilation of that mighty vision. The writing is rich, yet never clogged, the Bachian counterpoint sturdy yet serene, and the whole piece must be deemed a major discovery.
By contrast, the extremely well-knit Op. 3 Variations on an Original Theme wears a somewhat more Brahmsian air. It is another substantial achievement, superbly inventive and full of stylish caprice and flair. Searching chromatic harmonies permeate both the big-boned, restless progress of the Op. 7 Ballade as well as the more Chopinesque Deux Morceaux, Op. 4 and the Op. 10 Meditations. Listening to the latter diptych, I was convinced I’d heard this music somewhere before. Annotator Calum MacDonald provides the answer: both it and the Deux Morceaux were subsequently orchestrated by Marek and published as his Meditations, Op. 14 (and Gary Brain’s useful Philharmonia account of that very work, on Koch, was reviewed by me in 12/96). That disc also contains the outstandingly attractive Suite, Op. 25, the last of whose five movements reappears in a more extended working here as a perky Toccata and shares an opus number with the haunting Sarabande (not the same one as in the Suite, but a separate creation written the same year, 1926). All of which just leaves the Petite valse of 1919, a tasty, enjoyably mischievous morsel.
Marie-Catherine Girod, who left such a strong impression a few years ago with her integral set of the Bax piano sonatas on the French 3D Classics label (8/96), once again proves herself a fearless practitioner of all this rewarding material, and her imperious, flexible pianism is exceptionally well served by Chris Craker’s realistic engineering. Happily, there is a second volume on the way.'