Timeless
Tanja Zapolski (piano)
Toke Møldrup (cello)
Aarhus Symphony Orchestra/Magnus Fryklund
rec. May 2021, Aarhus Symphony Orchestra Concert Hall, Aarhus, Denmark.
DANACORD DACOCD876 [69]
This is an eclectic programme. The diverse range of music stretches from baroque to minimalism, and from high romantic to contemporary classical/ambient. Also, perhaps more unusually, there are different genres: piano solo, slow movements from three popular piano concertos and an extract from a film score suite; more about this later. And there is a cello solo in Arvo Pärt’s piece.
Here is the concept, explained in the booklet and the advertising sheet: the soloist wished this disc to be her “personal love letter to music”. Furthermore, “Tanja Zapolski [has] found the music she always held close to her heart. It is music to treasure, a timeless experience. All are part of a world of dreams, a kind and tender world and with music to touch our souls.” The last sentence causes my problem with this ethos, because a recital ought sometimes to challenge the listener, not just function as a palliative.
About those concerto movements: I am a musical snob. I do not like excerpting movements from symphonies, sonatas and concertos. Each of these forms is normally a sequence of several contrasting movements, often integrated tonally and sometimes thematically. It seems wrong to listen only to the purple passages. No doubt some readers will disagree. On the other hand, perhaps the unplayed movements of the Ravel, Grieg, Glass and Chopin works do not fit in with Zapolski’s dreamworld.
Talking of dreamworlds, I find Arvo Pärt’s Spiegel im Spiegel anything but relaxing or sleep-inducing. To me this is a haunting work. And my response is heightened here by the beautiful cello obligato. Neither do I find Nils Frahm’s Ambre particularly “tender” with its obsessive melodic patterns and sub-minimalistic constructions. Equally unsettling is the extract from Philip Glass’s Suite from The Hours. This is based on the score for a moving, but gloomy, film that majors on the effect of Virginia Woolf’s suicide on three women. Subject matters include mental illness, borderline personality disorder, and depression. The liner notes should have mentioned that this Suite was arranged by Michael Riesman.
Most of the other tracks do fit Zapolski’s scenario. The timeless Aria from Bach’s Goldberg Variations certainly makes a great opening track. And who could not be moved by Brahms’s heart-breaking Intermezzo? One delight for me is Handel’s Minuet in G minor in an arrangement by Wilhelm Kempff, a beautifully stated re-working of this lovely piece first published in 1733 in Suites de Pièces. Rameau’s Les Tendres Plaintes (The Tender Complaint) is a “magical oasis” in the musical firmament. Fragile and gentle, it is enchanting and wistful in equal measures.
The liner notes typically give a sentence-long introduction to each number. There are introductory notes discussing Zapolski’s personal feelings about music in general and an extract from Arthur Abell’s book Talks with Great Composers, “How Brahms Contacted God”. Several illustrations adorn the booklet, all using the same geometrical patterns, as well as quotations about the philosophy of music from several sources. A resume of the soloist is included. No mention is made in the track listing or notes as to which Chopin Concerto is being performed (it is No.1 in E minor). No venue or dates of recording appear in the booklet or gatefold CD cover; the record company kindly supplied this information.
There is no doubt that all this recital is played exceptionally well, and most certainly from the heart. The recording is clear and bright. The Aarhus Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Magnus Fryklund make a valuable contribution to the concert extracts. The entire programme is a wide-ranging exploration of soloist Tanja Zapolski’s personal musical dreamworld.
John France
Contents
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Aria from Goldberg Variations (1741)
Edvard Grieg (1843-1907)
Piano Concerto, Adagio (1868)
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Intermezzo, op. 118, No. 2 (1893)
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
Piano Concerto, Adagio assai (1929-1931)
Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)
Mazurka, op. 17, no. 4 (1832)
Piano Concerto No.1 in E minor, Romanze-Larghetto (1830)
Georg Friedrich Händel (1685-1759)
Minuet in G minor (1710) arr. William Kempff
Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764)
Les Tendres Plaintes (1724)
Philip Glass (b.1 937)
Suite from The Hours (2002) arr. by Michael Riesman (b.1943) (2003)
Nils Frahm (b. 1982)
Ambre (2009)
Arvo Pärt (b. 1935)
Spiegel im Spiegel (1978)
