Rubinstein Piano Concerto No. 4, etc

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: Moritz Moszkowski, Camille Saint-Saëns, Cécile (Louise Stèphanie) Chaminade, Leopold Godowsky, Franz Schubert, Anton (Grigor'yevich) Rubinstein, Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Label: Decca

Magazine Review Date: 3/1996

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 76

Mastering:

Stereo
DDD
ADD

Catalogue Number: 448 063-2DH

Tracks:

Composition	Artist Credit
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 4	Anton (Grigor'yevich) Rubinstein, Composer Anton (Grigor'yevich) Rubinstein, Composer Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Shura Cherkassky, Piano Vladimir Ashkenazy, Conductor
Symphonic Metamorphosis of Wein, Weib und Gesang	Leopold Godowsky, Composer Leopold Godowsky, Composer Shura Cherkassky, Piano
(Le) Carnaval des animaux, 'Carnival of the Animals', Movement: The swan	Camille Saint-Saëns, Composer Camille Saint-Saëns, Composer Shura Cherkassky, Piano
(4) Waltz-poems	Leopold Godowsky, Composer Leopold Godowsky, Composer Shura Cherkassky, Piano
(6) Moments musicaux, Movement: No. 3 in F minor	Franz Schubert, Composer Franz Schubert, Composer Shura Cherkassky, Piano
Triakontameron, Movement: Alt Wien (Old Vienna)	Leopold Godowsky, Composer Leopold Godowsky, Composer Shura Cherkassky, Piano
(2) Melodies, Movement: F	Anton (Grigor'yevich) Rubinstein, Composer Anton (Grigor'yevich) Rubinstein, Composer Shura Cherkassky, Piano
(6) Morceaux, Movement: No. 4, Nocturne in C sharp minor	Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer Shura Cherkassky, Piano
(3) Miniatures, Movement: Valse	Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov, Composer Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov, Composer Shura Cherkassky, Piano
(6) Pièces humoristiques, Movement: No. 4, Autrefois	Cécile (Louise Stèphanie) Chaminade, Composer Cécile (Louise Stèphanie) Chaminade, Composer Shura Cherkassky, Piano
Caprice espagnole	Moritz Moszkowski, Composer Moritz Moszkowski, Composer Shura Cherkassky, Piano

Author: Bryce Morrison

This recording complements Cherkassky’s 1994 studio performance of Rubinstein’s Fourth Piano Concerto (made when he was 85) with a selection of ‘encores’ from “Kaleidoscope”, his first L’Oiseau-Lyre/Decca LP made in 1974. All these performances now achieve an added poignancy given Cherkassky’s recent death and make one ask, what other pianist possessed so succulent or teasing a sense of sophistication? Every glistening strand of Godowsky’s Wein, Weib und Gesang, his polyphonic, poly-rhythmic maze, is highlighted with uncanny virtuoso resource, and even Sir Clifford Curzon – that incomparable Schubertian – would surely have smiled rather than frowned over Cherkassky’s Schubert-Godowsky, an arrangement he abhorred. Glazunov’s Valse in D is spun off with a delicate, vertiginous brilliance entirely Cherkassky’s own and Chaminade’s Autrefois, a charming pastiche, repeats an early and legendary success on an HMV 78 (2/51).
Then there is Rubinstein’s Fourth Concerto, a favourite of Joseph Hofmann (Cherkassky’s mentor during his student days in America) and another work for long at the centre of Cherkassky’s affections. That august publication, The Record Guide (Collins: 1951) may have offered a sniping estimate (“the swelling introduction promises great things, but what emerges is perhaps only a rather large mouse”) but played with Cherkassky’s musical commitment even the most outwardly conventional gestures take wing. A passing sense of frailty is instantly erased by Cherkassky’s tip-toe delicacy in the whirlwind finale, by a shot-silk tonal finesse in the central Andante, and by a capacity to take all the time in the world to make his points, whether piquantly or expressively. Ashkenazy’s partnership with his quicksilver soloist could hardly be more sympathetic and the recordings capture Cherkassky’s tonal bloom and colour to perfection.
However, if I were to pick just one item from this entrancing selection it would have to be Godowsky’s “Alt Wien”, a potent evocation of the past yet one that, in Cherkassky’s hands, somehow transcends time and place. There is, incidentally, much more to come from Decca, a tantalizing surprise from Biddulph and, hopefully, reissues of DG’s 1955-6 Tchaikovsky First and Second Concertos as well as transfers of the aforementioned HMV 78s.'