60 Études For Piano

Composed in 1915, Claude Debussy’s piano etudes represent some of the composer's most adventurous and unconventional writing. Paul Jacobs’s recordings of these pieces garnered international renown upon their initial release; Gramophone declared they “should be heard by everyone.” This release also features En Blanc et Noir, a piece, from the same year, for two pianos, performed by Jacobs and Gilbert Kalish.

This very appealing disc of post-minimal solo piano music, played by Bruce Brubaker, includes two multi-movements works by William Duckworth and Philip Glass. Composer and music critic Kyle Gann describes Duckworth's The Time Curve Preludes (1977-1978), which use repetitive structures, an essentially tonal harmonic language, and a limited amount of musical material, as the first examples of post-minimal music, because of their brevity, which runs counter to the element of minimalism in which musical changes unfold very slowly over a long time span. The preludes are in two books of 12 movements each, and Brubaker plays the first book. Although they rarely involve exact repetition, each prelude takes a musical idea and examines it from a variety of subtly shifting perspectives. The preludes generally have limited harmonic movement and are frequently built on drones, so they tend to create a sense of stasis and equilibrium, sometimes quietly meditative and sometimes busy. Duckworth's quirky hallmark mixture of major and minor modes is evident in many of the preludes. The harmonic movement and gestures of Glass' Six Etudes for Piano, from 1994, make the pieces immediately recognizable as his work.

Any discussion about the most difficult works in the piano repertoire is bound to include Leopold Godowsky's 53 Studies on Chopin's Etudes. To be sure, the pure, unadulterated Chopin Etudes lie within reach of most virtuosos. But one cursory glance at a page from a Godowsky/Chopin concoction might easily intimidate even the most accomplished pianist of the human species. Godowsky operates under the basic premise that whatever elaborate passagework Chopin assigned to the right hand can and should be played by the left. On top of that, he smothers the right hand with lily-gilding countermelodies and serpentine filigree.

These classic performances belong in the collection of anyone who cares about Debussy's piano music. Walter Gieseking's career was a troubled one his pandering to the Nazi party cast a shadow over his last years, but the greatest irony of all was that this German nationalist turned out to be the greatest exponent of French music of his era. His Debussy playing marries an effortlessly subtle control of the keyboard to a real sense of fantasy. The music truly shimmers in his hands, and despite the limited range of the mono recording, the ear quickly adjusts. This is, in short, one of those classic recordings that critics and music lovers have enjoyed for nearly 50 years.

To play Schumann with lyrical beauty and a dreamlike inspiration is a rare gift, for many pianists tend to fall into the pit of dry and all to rythmic hammering, even empty loudness. Richter doesn't fall into that but playes the monumental Schumann etude-variations with a warm and strong charactered insight. The tempos are never to the exstreme in either way and the pedaling is moderate, without ever bringing to birth an unplesent staccato. The triumphant final march is garanteed to raise your hair, not only because of Schumanns beautyfull music but also because of Richters powerfull and joyfull approach. This recording ranks among the very best. The Beethoven variations are also well served here although not exeptional.

Anda retrospectives continue to prove salutary. Testament has devoted a number of important re-releases to him, and there is fortunately not much duplication between them and this DG boxed set of five discs – Kreisleriana and the later Symphonic Etudes. The kernel of this set is Schumann augmented by Bartók, though not one of the more well-known Anda recordings, and his famed Brahms B flat major Concerto, and a wartime record of which he was greatly proud, the Franck Symphonic Variations. There’s also the not inconsiderable pleasure of listening to him in Chopin, in the Diabelli variations, a Schubert sonata and in some Liszt recorded at various times during his career.