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Sofronitsky (1901-61)
has been variably and erratically served
by record companies. I seem to recall
that his discs were available some time
ago from Denon in Japan in transfers
generally superior (but without English
notes) to those on Arlecchino – both
were multi-volume series. Certainly
he is included in the ‘Great Pianists
of the Century’ edition – Chopin and
Scriabin – and there are some scattered
memorials of his art on Kingdom, BMG
and Urania. But Vista Vera has now entered
the market with its own contribution
and the first available to me is this
Schubert and Schubert-Liszt disc. Let’s
hope a comprehensive edition is not
too unrealistic a hope.
Whatever the controversy
surrounding him – the exceptional esteem
in which many held him balanced by a
certain scorn of the last, compromised
recordings – we can be grateful at least
for the sixty hours or so of his performances
that have been preserved – whether in
the form of commercial discs or, his
preferred medium during his last years,
live recordings.
Here his playing spans
the years 1953-60. The C minor Impromptu
from D899 is full of drama and extravagant
rubati, its contours etched with exaggerated
intensity, whilst the A flat major (D935
No.2) is quixotic indeed, with slow
and fast tempi stretching the piece
almost – but not quite – to breaking
point. The G flat major is, to my ears,
more Chopin then Schubert and amongst
the slowest performances I’ve heard.
The Moments Musicaux were recorded in
1959 in a more resonant acoustic then
the Impromptus and don’t suffer from
quite the same level of intervention;
he plays five of the six, dropping the
fifth. The A flat major (No.2) is grave
and the F minor wryly sedate whilst
the concluding A flat major (No.6) is
deliberate and intensely sombre. But
when it comes to Sofronitsky’s unevenness
as a performer, especially in his last
days, one can make a comparison between,
say, the G flat major Impromptu in this
1960 performance and that on BMG’S ‘Russian
Piano School’ Sofronitsky issue. Both
recorded within months of each other
in 1960 the BMG Impromptu has the same
approach to rubato and sight subservience
of the left hand in the opening paragraphs
but is much more rigorously controlled,
tighter and more apt. It shows just
how changeable Sofronitsky could be.
The Schubert-Liszt transcriptions derive
from a 1960 session and are examples
of his touching bravura in this repertoire.
In Erlkönig there is some
loss of impetus and submerged right
hand detail but there’s compensatory
gravity in Der Doppelgänger.
Notes about source
material are minimal but transfers sound
quite acceptable. I’ve not heard competing
editions, particularly the Japanese
set, so collectors should certainly
note their existence.
Jonathan Woolf
Vladimir Sofronitsky (piano) 
