Tomáš Víšek
is the eloquent Czech pianist whose
Suk album for Arco Diva, played on the
composer’s own Bösendorfer, I admired
so much - review.
As well as a number of discs for Supraphon
he has self-produced some of his own.
This one takes as its theme: lyricism
– the title’s translation is actually
Touch my heart strings. As before
he proves a notably acute and sympathetic
guide to his native repertoire and an
artist worth hearing.
Naturally there is
Suk. Píseň
lásky must have been played
by every aspiring Czech and Slovak conservatoire
student but few will ever have approached
the romantic warmth of this performance
–most impressive, with no straining
for effect, and a performance I admit
to preferring over that of Moravec.
The Idylky is written in a very
approachable morceaux style and Víšek
makes no attempt to inflate it beyond
natural bounds.
There’s a lack of Bendl
on disc at the moment and these five
pieces are all apparently world premiere
recordings. He mines musical box delicacy,
very much of its time of course, but
despite the generic late nineteenth
century writing there’s real charm here,
not least in the pianist’s nuanced rolled
chords. Clearly Bendl’s aspirations
stretched beyond the borders of the
Twin Monarchies: Máy is
very French – Fauré specifically
– and the Serenade is strongly
influenced by Chopin. Might this lead
to a mini Bendl revival? Maybe not but
these are pieces, whilst perhaps rather
derivative and slight, well worth reviving.
There are some telling
rubati in the Fibich evergreen – now
much more often heard in its violin
arrangement - and we also hear some
of the eerie character depiction of
the Dvořák
Old Castle from the Poetic
Tone Pictures. The longest and most
powerful music here is reserved for
last – Novák’s Písně
zimních nocí or ‘Songs of
Winter Nights’. If you know the classic
Rauch recording from 1957, in a Supraphon
box of Novák piano music, you
will be aware that Víšek takes
a slightly more expansive view of these
four pieces. This is most evident in
the daringly elastic tempo taken in
the third, Song of a Christmas Night,
where the newcomer brings a commensurate
warmth and tristesse to bear on the
music. Elsewhere Rauch really whips
up the left hand gusts in the Stormy
Night - Víšek’s is by comparison
rather less gusty - and Víšek’s
Carnival Night is not as explosive
as Rauch’s. It’s more held in check,
the high spirits slightly more muted.
On the debit side the
recording is just a shade too cavernous
and the piano’s action is a touch noisy.
The notes consist of poetically inflected
lines about the pieces played but nothing
about the music as such – a pity, especially
with regard to Bendl. Never mind, here
is a Czech pianist really inside his
repertoire and one who promotes it with
warmth and imagination.
Jonathan Woolf
Tomáš Víšek (piano) 
