Famed though they
are these recordings, now appearing in SACD format, don’t seem
to me to support the Van Cliburn Legend. Not having heard them
for many years, and curious as to how the Rachmaninov would
stack up against the Horowitz-Reiner, newly reissued by Naxos,
I set aside preconceptions and listened with as much cool detachment
as I could.
Tempos are relaxed and the piano is set very
close in the acoustic set-up. This has the advantage of concentrating
the ear closely on the pianism and Van Cliburn’s mechanism,
though the inherent drawback is that of occasionally swimmy
orchestral counter-figures. This is a live performance and there
are some executant difficulties, especially in the first movement
cadenza but otherwise Van Cliburn displays considerable command,
though whether his placid-eruptive schema will appeal is an
individual matter. Too much here is subject to moments of refinement
and sudden over-dramatised theatre, as if he’s tempted to outsize
gesture, part of the means being excessive rubati. Attractive
and sensitively shaped, the slow movement is much better – note
the fine string responses galvanised by Kondrashin – and in
the finale Van Cliburn plays the full cadenza in the finale
(unusually for the time) but it’s a movement in which he rather
reverts to the attitude he adopted in the opening Allegro. Audience
exultation is faithfully preserved but it’s moot whether because
of the performance or his nationality.
The Prokofiev with Hendl is rather slack.
It abjures the acerbic or acidic momentum that the composer
displayed in his own London recording. The sound quality however
is excellent, vintage Orchestra Hall, Chicago, 1960. The balance
between instruments is well judged and the percussion registers
viscerally. What doesn’t register as brightly is a real sense
of the kinetic. It’s really only in the second movement, when
Van Cliburn uncovers some otherworldly finesse and prodigious
clarity of expression, that one is taken aback by his playing.
In point of fact digital excellence is audible throughout –
there’s a remarkable amount of detail that one can hear – but
it comes at the expense of a lack of momentum
Both these performances
are well known and both have been readily available in recent
re-releases; the Prokofiev on RCA 09026 62691-2 and the Rachmaninov
on Philips CD 456 748-2PM2. Should you wish to listen on the
dual format here is your first chance to do so.
Jonathan Woolf
Van Cliburn (piano)
[73.15]
