French pianist Marie-Josephe Jude, now in her thirties, studied with Aldo Ciccolini and briefly with Gyorgy Cziffra, and in this Mendelssohn programme she demonstrates an unflappable assurance, an impressive technique and a bold romantic temperament. From the first and most famous of the Preludes and Fugues, her fluency and majestic singing tone make a strong impression. Jude sweeps through the Prelude with propulsive momentum, and although such drive suits this piece well, this trait of her playing turns out to be more damaging elsewhere. Her skittish and elfin playing in the B minor Prelude (track 5) is striking, and she projects an attractive shapeliness and loving sentiment in the song-like F minor Prelude (track 9), but in many of the fugues she doesn’t quite have sufficient classical poise to build a sense of cumulative power. Try the E minor Fugue, for example, where the final exultant chorale surely lacks climactic, organ-like grandeur. Overall, Jude’s headstrong romanticism is a powerful antidote to Benjamin Frith’s more classical conservatism, especially in the preludes, but there is more rhythmic and dynamic definition in Frith’s playing, and crucially he allows the music more space to breathe.
In the Variations serieuses Jude’s big technique encompasses the most awkward difficulties with ease, and again she has a strong sense of line and melodic shape. However, there is a brittleness to her playing, both tonal and rhythmic, as well as an underlying impatience that prevents her from giving phrases enough physical and musical space. By comparison, Perahia is more poetic and rhythmically supple and has a more natural feeling for structural evolution. Jude dazzles in Variations 16 and 17, but Perahia’s musicianship tells in his structural and poetic integration of the contrasting slower variations.
The children’s pieces of Op 72 are attractively played and make pleasant encores, but it is the larger works that best reveal Jude’s strengths and weaknesses. The booklet information – there are no opus numbers and the note doesn’t mention the Variations serieuses or the Op 72 pieces – is infuriating, and the sound is clear if a little cool.'