EMI’s ‘Icon’ series
has proved to be, on balance, a good one though it’s perpetuated
some less than optimum transfers. My experience of this
particular edition devoted to Cortot is that the transfers
are very acceptable. Some were made in 2006 – the Preludes
for instance – whilst others are credited to the 1997 work
that EMI France carried out on, say, Debussy and Ravel
that are contained in disc three. Still others date back
to 1989 – the Franck, Fauré and Debussy violin sonatas,
whilst others – the trios - come from 1991. So the net
has been spread widely. I certainly found the 2006 restorations
rather more to my liking than some of EMI’s recent GROC
work, a lot of which I find metallic and wearying; not
all, of course, as the Beethoven-Busch quartet performances
are strongly excepted.
The
run down of the recordings in this seven CD set shows the
expected recordings so there will be little surprise for
collectors. For the generalist with a hankering for historical
performances by a master such as Cortot the good transfers
and the repertoire – especially its completeness in terms
of the trio recordings with Thibaud and Casals will vie
with the set’s good value as double inducements.
A
few specific words about transfers, then. Regarding the
Kreutzer sonata I prefer the work here to the old Biddulph
[LAB028] by Mark Obert-Thorn; there’s greater tonal depth
in EMI’s work. The trios are all on Naxos of course – the
Schumann and Mendelssohn on 8.110185, the Haydn and Schubert
on 8.110188. EMI’s work is generally more open, and preserves
greater treble, though the Naxos is warmer and has a touch
more tonal bloom. To take another example the 1933 Impromptus
are on Naxos 8.111023 in a 2005 transfer. The 2006 EMI
transfer has a touch more clarity and presence and I happen
to prefer it. I think the 1949 Berceuse is totally clear-cut.
The Naxos is muffled against the clarity of the EMI.
These
solitary examples should give one some indication of the
strengths of this set and a look at the head note will
reveal the depth of repertory covered. The majority of
pieces were recorded between 1926 and 1933 though there
are obvious exceptions.
Jeux d’eau is the solitary
acoustic recording, made in New York in March 1923 and
the post-war ’49 sessions are represented by the Chopin
items in the first disc.
The
Op.28 Preludes are the 1933 recordings. There will be partisans
of the 1926 set – on Naxos 8.111023 (see
review) – and
maybe less so of the wartime 1942 traversal as well. But
this mid point cycle is in many ways the most consistently
illuminating. The second disc is devoted to the Archduke
about which I’ve written in its Naxos guise [8.110195] – a
very fine though not, for me, truly outstanding reading – where
it’s coupled with the Kreutzer sonata. The Schubert is
definitely a great performance though and the Mendelssohn,
Haydn and Schumann are joined by the two sets of variations
that made up the small corpus of recordings set down by
a trio that made do with a really exceptionally limited
repertoire.
The
Debussy and Ravel performances are self-recommending even
to those who adhere to other of Cortot’s contemporaries
in this repertoire. The Franck Sonata is a classic French
performance, comparable to the later Francescatti-Casadesus
and the Belgian Dubois-Maas duo (on Biddulph and a must-hear)
in terms of stylistic acumen. So too the Debussy sonata
and the Fauré in A, long admired staples. Cortot and Thibaud
and Casals joined forces in the famous Barcelona recording
of the Brahms Double Concerto, Cortot caught here in his
only expedition - in this set - as conductor.
The
final disc gives us some explosive Liszt, his 1929 recording
of the Sonata being one of the tersest and fastest on record,
whilst the New York recorded Hungarian Rhapsodies are full
of dynamism and leonine wit. They make a wonderful, glamorous
and virtuosic end to a finely selected box.
Jonathan Woolf
Alfred Cortot
(piano and conductor) 
