I suppose it’s
possible to imagine transcriptions of Rachmaninov songs being
done better than by Earl Wild but - well, no, on reflection,
I don’t think it is. I remember when I listened to a recording
of his transcription of a piece by Marcello – it was the adagio
of the Oboe Concerto and is on Ivory’s Wild at 88 disc
– not merely how beautiful it was but how beautifully crafted.
Wild has been writing transcriptions for most of his adult life
and this facility, this gift, augmented by an auspicious affinity
with Rachmaninov’s music has led to this disc, much of which
was recorded in July 1982 and first issued on LP. That material
has been augmented by four tracks recorded in Ohio in 1991 and by three live performances from a Montreal concert in 1983. As a result there
are three performances of an obvious Wild favourite, In The
Silent Night, as well as two - very different – performances
of Vocalise and equally two each of Where Beauty Dwells
and Floods of Spring.
The
results are entirely pianistic creations, each a kind of song
without words, in which Wild had Rachmaninov’s own example to
follow; the composer transcribed his own songs Daisies and Lilacs.
Wild has followed a broadly Lisztian-Rachmaninovian course and
each song is bathed in lyric warmth and passion. So for example
one can admire the mournful inflexions of the left hand in O
Cease thy singing or the concentrated prayerfulness of To
the Children in which the melody moves to the bass and the
right weaves roulades of decoratively expressive passagework
over it. The repeated climaxes of Do Not Grieve reflect
the exhortation of the poem – all texts are provided by the
way, in English – and Wild brings out all the harmonic complexity
in a setting such as The Muse Op.34 No.1, written in
1912. His Vocalise was a minute quicker in the later,
1991 recording, which adds to the tension, though that earlier
side does sound a little tape hissy; there’s some residual high
level hiss throughout in point of fact. Floods of Spring
is an early setting and it matches the youthful spirit of
the poem and its setting – truly verdant, open-hearted and lyric
with plenty of drive and animation. Then there’s the gorgeous
reverie of Dreams – as tempting in Wild’s hands as a
narcotic. There’s also the suicide-abjuring power of Sorrow
in Springtime, the controlled ecstasy of Midsummer Nights
and the little tone poem that Wild makes of Where Beauty
Dwells, full of harmonic beauty, finesse and colour. I prefer
the Montreal Floods of Spring – it’s pretty much the
same tempo as the 1981 studio recording but it’s more immediate
and richer, in the same way that I prefer the same live concert’s
version of Where Beauty Dwells which has slightly sharper
accents and a tighter tempo.
With
a typically helpful and attractive booklet from Ivory this is
another of their frankly self-recommending Wild releases. If
you want to sample, prepare to unravel Where Beauty Dwells
and see if you don’t submit to Wild’s fabled charms.
Jonathan Woolf
Earl Wild (piano)
