I’d not previously
caught up with Ohlsson’s cycle of the
complete solo piano works for Arabesque.
Having recently heard him accompany
Ewa Podles on disc in Chopin songs,
a Warsaw recital of insight, and knowing
of the contralto’s famous summary dismissal
of accompanists (but not Ohlsson – she
holds him in high esteem) I was eager
to catch up with his younger self.
He’s certainly a strong,
lean and technically impeccable player
with pronounced views. I’ve not hear
him in the Ballades or the Rondos since
– so I can’t say how or if he has altered
his view of them - but I can say that
his view of them in 1989 was entirely
consistent. Let me preface this by saying
that many will find his playing highly
poetic and sympathetic, that his consistently
slow tempos will appeal and that his
musical understanding is out of the
ordinary. Obviously though I have a
‘But’. I find the elasticity of tempo
rubato really too excessive (not least
in the F minor), the slow and italicised
playing unsettling, some of his chording
(see the G minor Ballade) unconvincing,
and an air of stiffness of phrasing
that doesn’t always sound natural. Thus
the G minor moves from extremes of introspection
to cataclysmic outburst in a way that
stretches the piece to breaking point.
Similarly this fitfulness of approach
– or is it overplayed inhibition? –
afflicts parts of the F major whilst
the A flat major, to these ears, never
really gets off the ground; there’s
a rhythmic choppiness and an emotive
unreliability at its heart. And for
all the attractive qualities of the
Rondos, they too seem vitiated by tempi
that never cohere. It’s not simply a
question of slow tempos, it’s a question
of the tempo relationships making architectural
sense – and here I’m afraid they don’t.
Not to me.
The recording quality
is sensitive and attractively warm though
there are moments when Ohlsson forces
through his tone and sometimes lacks
colour. So Ohlsson 1989 is not greatly
to my liking – it would be instructive
to hear him in these pieces on disc
now.
Jonathan Woolf
Garrick Ohlsson (piano) 
