Walter Gieseking, Vol.3

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Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Johannes Brahms, Maurice Ravel, Fryderyk Chopin, Alfredo Casella

Label: Pearl

Magazine Review Date: 3/1994

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 76

Mastering:

Mono
ADD

Catalogue Number: GEMMCD9038

Tracks:

Composition	Artist Credit
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 9	Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Composer Igor Markevitch, Conductor Paris National Orchestra Walter Gieseking, Piano Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Composer
(6) Pieces, Movement: No. 5, Romance in F	Johannes Brahms, Composer Johannes Brahms, Composer Walter Gieseking, Piano
(2) Rhapsodies, Movement: No. 2 in G minor	Johannes Brahms, Composer Johannes Brahms, Composer Walter Gieseking, Piano
(16) Polonaises, Movement: No. 6 in A flat, Op. 53, 'Heroic'	Fryderyk Chopin, Composer Fryderyk Chopin, Composer Walter Gieseking, Piano
(27) Etudes, Movement: A flat, 'Harp Study', Op. 25/1	Fryderyk Chopin, Composer Fryderyk Chopin, Composer Walter Gieseking, Piano
(27) Etudes, Movement: F minor, Op. 25/2	Fryderyk Chopin, Composer Fryderyk Chopin, Composer Walter Gieseking, Piano
Nocturnes, Movement: No. 3 in B, Op. 9/3	Fryderyk Chopin, Composer Fryderyk Chopin, Composer Walter Gieseking, Piano
Nocturnes, Movement: No. 5 in F sharp, Op. 15/2	Fryderyk Chopin, Composer Fryderyk Chopin, Composer Walter Gieseking, Piano
(4) Ballades, Movement: No. 3 in A flat, Op. 47	Fryderyk Chopin, Composer Fryderyk Chopin, Composer Walter Gieseking, Piano
Sonatina	Alfredo Casella, Composer Alfredo Casella, Composer Walter Gieseking, Piano
Jeux d'eau	Maurice Ravel, Composer Maurice Ravel, Composer Walter Gieseking, Piano

Author: James Methuen-Campbell

This really is a mixed bag. The earliest recordings, the Homochords, have pretty intolerable surface noise, so much so that quiet notes are barely audible. The young Gieseking sounds very much to have been a man in a hurry. The Chopin Etudes, Op. 25 Nos. 1 and 2 are the most refined items from these early acoustic discs, though Ravel's Jeux d'eau is also of interest, being one of the first recordings of the composer's piano music.
Of a later vintage is Chopin's A flat Ballade, dating from 1947. I have never thought of Gieseking as being much of a Chopin player, but this reading is all innocence and poetry. One hears the hackneyed piece anew. Casella's Sonatina (dating from 1916) was recorded only a few days previously. Of barely eight minutes' duration, it perhaps may seem a bit self-consciously 'modern' by today's standards. The writing is necessarily episodic and has some affinities with Bartok.
The piano is very forward and boldly recorded in the Mozart concerto, taken from a performance the year before the pianist's death. If only one heard this sort of spontaneity today! Gieseking is economical with expressive nuance throughout, yet always his piano tone is sympathetic. Markevitch obtains some lovely textures from the orchestra in the Andantino, though once the finale is under way the string players find considerable difficulty in keeping up with Gieseking's extraordinarily fast pace. Mozart's cadenzas are somewhat extended and altered.'