The world is not exactly short of superb performances and excellent
recordings of the Liszt Piano Sonata. It therefore seems
odd that on a label whose policy is that all profits - after
the costs of production and distribution - should go to the
recording artists, Domenico Codispoti should have entered such
a crowded field. Most of the other issues I have seen on this
label have aimed at areas where there is either a gap in the
market or not such strong competition from other more established
artists.
Codispoti has an excellent technique, which is an absolute requisite
in this music. That said, he charges at the music rather like
a bull at a gate, and even at the grand climax (track 1, 3.27)
he still pushes ahead rather than expanding in the more usual
manner. Then afterwards he pulls the tempo back so far that
the phrases fail to hold together. In his note on the record
sleeve the pianist extols the virtues of “unpredictability”
and “instinct”, which is perfectly in order in such
romantic music; but the performer must also have a sense of
the architecture of the long single movement, not simply a response
to the moment but a feeling of where the music is going. In
this performance Codispoti is ten seconds faster than Horowitz,
himself no slouch in this music; he is some two minutes faster
than Barenboim and Pletnev. Although Brendel in his award-winning
Philips performance takes about the same time, his tempi throughout
are less extreme in both directions. Of the major competition
only Pollini is faster - by over a minute.
The three Petrarch Sonnets from the second book of the
Années de pélérinage are nowadays
becoming better known in their form as song settings, but the
piano versions are worthwhile pieces in their own right. Codispoti
is more laid-back in his approach, although again he is half
a minute faster than Earl Wild in his live 1985 recording in
the Sonnet No 47 - and Wild, again, was not given to
slow speeds in Liszt. Barenboim, recorded live at La Scala,
shaves yet another half a minute off Codipoti’s time.
Variations in speed in the other two sonnets are remarkably
small. Codispoti phrases the tunes with affection and certainly
does not lack feeling. The climactic statement of the tune in
Sonnet No 104 (track 8, 2.50) is very fine indeed, and
he is nicely veiled in the Sonnet No 123.
Surprisingly the only currently available disc which similarly
couples the Sonata with the three Petrarch Sonnets
is a 2004 release from Alfredo Perl on the Oehms label. I have
not been able either to hear this or to find a review of it,
but in any event it would seem to offer rather short measure.
The new release under consideration adds a rather unexpected
bonus in the shape of one movement from Granados’s piano
suite Goyescas - not to be confused with his later opera
of the same name. Although Codispoti again plays with plenty
of feeling, comparisons with Alicia de Larrocha inevitably show
a degree of greater freedom in the Spanish pianist who made
so many recordings of this repertoire.
In the end one is left somewhat puzzled and unclear as to the
market for which this CD is intended. The recording quality
is excellent, but with so much competition from other pianists
in these works comparisons are bound to be to the disadvantage
of any newcomer. On the other hand, Codispoti is clearly an
excellent pianist, and one would look forward to encountering
him in different repertoire where his superb qualities could
be enjoyed without invidious comparisons.
Paul Corfield Godfrey
Masterwork Index: Liszt
Piano sonata
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Domenico Codispoti (piano) 