I
hadn’t heard of Sergey Schepkin before requesting this
disc for review, but my reasons for doing so were based
on hearing some sound samples over the internet of his ‘Well
Tempered Clavier’ recordings. Russian-born Schepkin has
performed widely as soloist and chamber musician since
his New York debut at the Weill Recital Hall in 1993, and
this 1995 recording was his debut release as a recording
artist.
Since
it has been around for a while, I had a look online to
see what others had said on this recording. There are the
usual acclaims printed close to ‘Buy This CD’ buttons,
which can always be taken as selective, but most of the
independent voices seem to be positive as well, some citing
this recording as their favourite out of the vast selection
on offer.
There
have been criticisms of course. Schepkin plays all of the
repeats, which is arguably either necessary, or a dry and
over-academic waste of time. This is however an essential
part of Schepkin’s approach to ornamentation: in his own
words, ‘they offer the performer the possibility of reading
the same text differently... a chance to make the sunbeams
play in the facets of a diamond.’ Baroque practise allowed
virtuoso musicians the leeway for improvisatory embellishment
of the music on the repeat, and Schepkin is determined
to continue this tradition to the full. This is part of
his approach to playing Bach on the piano – seeing the
instrument as a ‘“superharpsichord”: an instrument with
clear and crisp sound, but one which allows for literally
millions of degrees of touch and subtle change in sonority.’ This
is true, but I know Russianness in piano playing when I
hear it, and Schepkin is certainly not shy of building
up quite a head of steam when the mood and the music takes
him – this is no somnolent
Goldberg. He is also
quite happy to turn the sonority of the instrument to his
own hand, transposing some of the repeats up an octave
for variety, and presumably in emulation of the upper manual
on a two-manual harpsichord.
Rather
than defend Schepkin against the kind of critics who will
always be around somewhere, I am quite happy to give my
own opinion. Having had my ears and musical spirit bashed
around by
Burkard
Schliessmann not so very long ago, I am pleased to
be able to inform you that this recording is much more
up my street. Schepkin’s tempi are compact and stable,
with plenty of lightness and variety, but without extremes
in terms of either overambitious swiftness or tragically
mannered and funereal slowness. He cites the ubiquitous
Glenn Gould as an influence and a musician he admires enormously,
but Schepkin’s
Goldberg is no kind of pale imitation
of Gould’s glories. Agreed, he sometimes points his articulation
in comparable ways to that grand old master, showing his
awareness that the positioning of the
ends of notes
can be as important as their attack. Far from remaining
limited by the ‘melody + accompaniment’ criticism offered
elsewhere, I can hear plenty of equality in the counterpoint,
and plenty of expressive meaning in the secondary voices.
As previously mentioned, the more energetic variations
clatter along with tremendous gusto, but these passages
serve to highlight more the contrasts in some of the beautiful
effects in the more lyrical variations. Schepkin’s ornamentation
sounds quite natural to me. He is quite liberal and free
with his embellishments, but these never seem to distort
the flow or shape of the original melody: in other words,
they remain in the service of the music and the composer,
which is the way it should be.
Yes,
there are many, in some cases too many recordings of the
Goldberg
Variations around, but I would be more than happy to
recommend Sergey Schepkin’s recording as one of those high
on the shortlist for any collection of this work on piano.
The sound quality is very good, capturing those all important
nuances well. Schepkin’s ‘lion of the piano’ loudness may
take a little adjusting to in some variations, but this
is all part of the package, and I’m not making any claim
for this as definitive – no such recording exists. The
Holy Grail in this music is not so much the end result,
but the journey of discovery by both performer and listener.
I’ve enjoyed this particular journey very much indeed,
and I’ll be glad to be able to take it frequently in future.
Dominy Clements
Sergey
Schepkin (piano)
