There are rather less
Paderewski compilations available at
the moment than you might think. Pearl
did sterling work for him back in the
LP era and to an extent now. Other labels
have produced their own releases but
there needs to be a comprehensive, newly
transferred chronological sequence –
by Marston, perhaps or APR or Naxos.
Living Era have now added him to their
roster of artists and provided Leschetitzky’s
most famous pupil with renewed visibility,
and audibility, for his electric discs.
Their scope is a roughly four-year sequence
from May 1926 to December 1930.
Though the disc is
entitled Minuet and other favourites
we can note that he plays the opening
movement (only) of Beethoven C sharp
minor sonata (Moonlight) as well
as two Chopin Nocturnes and three Etudes,
all from Op.10; there are also two of
the most famous Preludes from Op.28.
So whilst the programme is certainly
popular it’s not at all frivolous or
unduly light. Paderewski was a formidable
technician on his best days, for all
the criticism. That said it would be
idle to pretend that the post-1925 electrics
show him at his finest – for that one
needs his acoustics.
His own Minuet, the
piece that gives the disc its title,
is full of its composer’s calibrated
rubati, and leonine drama in the left
hand and makes a perfectly stylish start
to the recital, which is in effect what
this is – it’s in no sense a chronological
survey and splits sessions asunder in
the interests of variety. No, the Beethoven
doesn’t seem to probe very deeply perhaps
and the characteristically non-synchronous
chording that is so much a feature of
the Liszt is very much an aspect of
technique of pianists of his generation
and one that will be rather troubling
to those unfamiliar with it. The
Prophet Bird however is charmingly
done and his fellow Pole Stojowski’s
Chant d’amour whilst a touch
over-decorated is characterised splendidly.
In his Chopin series
rhythm can be a casualty of de-synchronous
chording and over-romanticised expression.
Textual peculiarities abound as well,
Paderewski being very much a nineteenth
century editorialising-virtuoso (try
the rhetorical Op.10 No.3 Etude) and
extreme rubati cause the Nocturne in
E flat to curl up its toes – at least
it did to these ears. It was pretty
extreme even for 1930. Caesurae and
impeded rhythm rather do for the otherwise
wittily pointed Valse Brillante but
there’s bracing virtue to be found in
the brisk opening of the Raindrop
Prelude.
Paderewski the pianist
has often been taken for granted. It’s
true that the earlier sequences of recordings
he made reveal a musician of greater
technical capacity and powerfully communicative
power. To start with Paderewski you
will need to start there, despite the
obviously more primitive sound. The
electrics offer only partial and qualified
glimpses, some still lordly it’s true,
into his musicianship. But they’ve been
well transferred here – not state of
the art I have to say, but sympathetically.
Jonathan Woolf