Russian Piano Works
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Mily Alexeyevich Balakirev, Modest Mussorgsky
Genre:
Instrumental
Label: Decca
Magazine Review Date: 2/1993
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 65
Mastering:
Stereo
DDD
Catalogue Number: 436 255-2DH
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Islamey |
Mily Alexeyevich Balakirev, Composer
Mily Alexeyevich Balakirev, Composer Olli Mustonen, Piano |
| Album for the young |
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Olli Mustonen, Piano Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer |
| Pictures at an Exhibition |
Modest Mussorgsky, Composer
Modest Mussorgsky, Composer Olli Mustonen, Piano |
Author: Christopher Headington
The young Finnish pianist Olli Mustonen is a remarkable artist and his splendid debut disc of preludes by Alkan and Shostakovich (neither mainstream repertory) was the winner in the Instrumental category of the 1992 Gramophone Awards. With the present issue, he turns his attention to Russian repertory and separates two virtuoso showpieces with something very different—the 24 miniatures of Tchaikovsky's Album for the young. However, compared to his first disc, this issue proves to be a major disappointment, all the more so given the quality of its predecessor.
Islamey starts well enough, with crisp articulation and a close yet atmospheric sound captured in London's Henry Wood Hall. But as it progresses towards its middle section in D major I am less enthusiastic, for Mustonen's fingerwork is choppy and Balakirev's more delicate dynamics go unrealized. He gives the middle section itself a mannered delivery where we need a warm simplicity, and also fails to deliver the score's precise tempo changes. Indeed, I looked in vain here for the impeccable fingerwork, subtle tonal control and, above all, interpretative security that distinguished his other disc.
Alas, Mustonen satisfies me even less in the Mussorgsky, where he starts badly by imparting unconvincing rubato and tonal shapes to the opening ''Promenade''. As in Islamey, he too often detaches notes which the composer marks legafo, and more and more as the performance proceeds I feel it to be both lightweight and wayward, so that it lacks an essential monumental quality. Other aspects of the work's varied atmospheres are also missing, and I have never heard on disc an opening to ''The old castle'' that so signally fails to catch its mood or to observe the marked molto cantabile e con dolore and pianissimo dynamic. Again, these quirky tonal shapes and rubato are simply wrong in this music. I could go on—for example, ''Bydlo'' is mostly just loud instead of evoking the laboured slow pace of the heavy ox-wagon pauses between numbers are commonly too siort, forte attack is crude and accents exaggerated—but space forbids and I have made my point. This is playing that makes you listen (if that is what Mustonen is after, he succeeds) but fails to get to the heart of the work or to hold it together.
I chose to listen to these 'big' pieces first, and only then turned my attention to the Tchaikovsky children's album which separates them. These pieces are short even by 'miniature' standards—most last under a minute and the ''Russian Song'' plays for a mere 23 seconds—and since they were written for the nursery they do not lend themselves well to the vivid concert treatment that Mustonen gives to, say, ''The Hobby-horse'' or the ''Waltz''. His treatment of 3/8 time in the ''Italian Song'' also sounds downright perverse for music based on a simple folk-melody. However, his strongly projected accounts of the ''March of the Wooden Soldiers'', ''The Sick Doll'', ''The Doll's Funeral'' and ''Mazurka'' may help to banish uneasy memories (for children and GL parents!) of the elementary music exams for which they are commonly set, as indeed are many of the others, including the 36-second portrayal of the witch Baba-Yaga.'
Islamey starts well enough, with crisp articulation and a close yet atmospheric sound captured in London's Henry Wood Hall. But as it progresses towards its middle section in D major I am less enthusiastic, for Mustonen's fingerwork is choppy and Balakirev's more delicate dynamics go unrealized. He gives the middle section itself a mannered delivery where we need a warm simplicity, and also fails to deliver the score's precise tempo changes. Indeed, I looked in vain here for the impeccable fingerwork, subtle tonal control and, above all, interpretative security that distinguished his other disc.
Alas, Mustonen satisfies me even less in the Mussorgsky, where he starts badly by imparting unconvincing rubato and tonal shapes to the opening ''Promenade''. As in Islamey, he too often detaches notes which the composer marks legafo, and more and more as the performance proceeds I feel it to be both lightweight and wayward, so that it lacks an essential monumental quality. Other aspects of the work's varied atmospheres are also missing, and I have never heard on disc an opening to ''The old castle'' that so signally fails to catch its mood or to observe the marked molto cantabile e con dolore and pianissimo dynamic. Again, these quirky tonal shapes and rubato are simply wrong in this music. I could go on—for example, ''Bydlo'' is mostly just loud instead of evoking the laboured slow pace of the heavy ox-wagon pauses between numbers are commonly too siort, forte attack is crude and accents exaggerated—but space forbids and I have made my point. This is playing that makes you listen (if that is what Mustonen is after, he succeeds) but fails to get to the heart of the work or to hold it together.
I chose to listen to these 'big' pieces first, and only then turned my attention to the Tchaikovsky children's album which separates them. These pieces are short even by 'miniature' standards—most last under a minute and the ''Russian Song'' plays for a mere 23 seconds—and since they were written for the nursery they do not lend themselves well to the vivid concert treatment that Mustonen gives to, say, ''The Hobby-horse'' or the ''Waltz''. His treatment of 3/8 time in the ''Italian Song'' also sounds downright perverse for music based on a simple folk-melody. However, his strongly projected accounts of the ''March of the Wooden Soldiers'', ''The Sick Doll'', ''The Doll's Funeral'' and ''Mazurka'' may help to banish uneasy memories (for children and GL parents!) of the elementary music exams for which they are commonly set, as indeed are many of the others, including the 36-second portrayal of the witch Baba-Yaga.'
Russian Piano Works
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