Mily BALAKIREV (1837-1910)
Complete Piano Works
Nicholas Walker (piano)
rec. 2012-2014, Wyastone Leys, Monmouth, UK (vols.1-3); 2017-2019, Saint Silas the Martyr Church, Kentish Town, London, UK (vols. 4-6)
GRAND PIANO GP864X [6 CDs: 462 mins]
Pianists today recall Mily Balakiev most of all for Islamey: Oriental Fantasy, noted by music critic Harold C. Schonberg as "at one time…considered the most difficult of all piano pieces and is still one of the knucklebusters". It remains popular to this day as a virtuosic showpiece.
Its composer is remembered today as a pianist and conductor, whose music promoted and expressed overt nationalistic feeling. After Glinka, Balakirev is the most influential composer in 19th-century Russian music. In the late 1850s and early 1860s he became the self-appointed leader of The Five or The Mighty Handful, a group that included Alexander Borodin, César Cui, Modest Mussorgsky, and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. He left the group in 1871. At that time he suffered a nervous breakdown, withdrawing from music for about a decade. Although he resumed his musical interests in the 1880s, he never regained its earlier momentum.
Nicholas Walker’s survey of the composer’s complete piano music began in 2012 and reached its conclusion in 2020. Over those years, six separate volumes were released. The recordings were set down over two venues: Volumes 1-3 at Wyastone Leys, Monmouth, and Volumes 4-6 at Saint Silas the Martyr Church, Kentish Town, London. Now, the Grand Piano label has gathered together these volumes into a box set. Previous volumes have garnered enthusiastic reviews from several of my MusicWeb colleagues (Volume 1 ~ Volume 5 ~ Volume 6).
The piano music is imbued with charm and melodic largesse, and it may puzzle some why it’s relatively unknown and not performed that often. The answer lies in the fact that most of it demands a technique of the highest order. Balakirev doesn’t seem to direct his pieces at the amateur pianist. He was a superb pianist and he writes virtuosically, lacing his scores with flights of fancy and a kaleidoscope of colour effects. Take the big-boned three-movement B-flat minor Piano Sonata, Op 5 from 1856. It’s suffused with passionate intensity, it’s dense textures contrast with themes more lithe in character. Balakirev got to know Mikhail Glinka in 1855, and his admiration for the older composer spurred him on to compose. "The Lark" is No 10 of a group of twelve songs that Glinka wrote in 1840 under the title "Farewell to St. Petersburg". Balakirev’s rearranged it for piano solo, and it’s become a popular showstopper with exquisite flowing figuration. Walker’s traversal of it and Islamey are ones that stand shoulder to shoulder with the finest in the catalogue.
This is not the first time a cycle of the composer’s piano works has been undertaken. There’s a 6 CD set on Brilliant Classics by Alexander Paley, reviewed on this site by Paul Kennedy. I haven’t heard any of it to offer any comparisons. Walker’s cycle is more comprehensive, adding four more works and an early sonata.
Nicholas Walker is a pianist I have to admit I'm not familiar with. The BBC Music Magazine spoke in glowing terms of "the flair of a full-scale virtuoso and a sparkling intelligence". He studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London and at the Moscow Conservatory. He now teaches at the former. He's obviously one this country's best kept secrets. His stunning virtuosity, accomplished musicality and stylish readings do true justice to these wonderful scores. The two recording venues offer an acoustic and ambience that, in my view, couldn’t be bettered. The booklet notes in each of the volumes discusses the works featured. This is my first encounter with 99% of these works, and I’m more than pleased to have made their acquaintance.
Stephen Greenbank
