Back in the 1990s,
a veritable flood of not only important
but interesting music came from
the Russian stockpile of Melodiya recordings.
These included previously unheard recordings
of Feinberg and lesser-known pianists
in the 21-disc ‘Russian Piano School’
set, seldom-heard performances of Sviatoslav
Richter on 5 discs and Mravinsky’s recordings
with the Leningrad Philharmonic on 20
discs. Svetlanov’s impressive ‘Anthology
of Russian Symphonic Music’ series extended
past sixty discs, not including
his complete recordings of Myaskovsky’s
symphonies. Pieces not covered in this
massive wave came out on other labels,
such as the much harder to pronounce
Mezhdunarodnaya Kniga label. Soon, however,
these attractively-priced discs vanished
from store shelves after Western world
conglomerates snapped up Melodiya and
its miles of magnetic tape. After an
initial spurt of releases through BMG
and, to a lesser extent, ZYX, the whole
thing dried up by 1999.
A similar flood now
appears to be coming from other former
Eastern Bloc countries, especially Poland.
On offer, as example, is this the first
of two discs of Jozef Koffler’s piano
music. Newly and crisply recorded, Sternlicht
plays with spirit and conviction and,
it appears, affection. The piano is
bright and well balanced.
An early proponent
of the 12-tone system, Koffler, here
strongly reminds one of Hindemith with
Prokofiev’s swagger, albeit not as much
on this disc as on the second volume.
The Musique Quasi una Sonata,
Op. 8 and his Sonatina, Op. 12
Koffler is reminiscent of Mompou in
his sparseness, with dissonances even
calling Alexandr Mosolov to mind. None
of these pieces is long — the largest-scale
work on this disc is the excellent five-movement
Op. 8, where the finale is just over
2 minutes long. The construction of
these pieces is taut and lean, and Sternlicht’s
clarity shows this to great advantage.
At first blush, the following forty
settings of Polish folksongs (without
voice) may seem a bit of a trial for
both composer and listener, but the
settings are overall very light, sensitive
and enjoyable, with the touch of Schubert
at times.
In considering the
other discs on offer from Acte Préalable,
it looks like we may be treated to another
rich feast of unheard repertoire. If
the quality of those recordings is on
the same level as this release, we are
in for a very rich feast indeed.
David Blomenberg
see also
volume 2
Full
Acte Préalable Catalogue
Elzbieta Sternlicht (piano) 
for
details
