In almost all respects
I am in total agreement with my colleague
John Leeman’s excellent review of this
disc. So much so in fact that I find
myself paraphrasing the points he made,
all of which I can independently verify.
For a start there’s
the Tchaikovsky recording quality. The
solo piano pounds out of the left channel
whilst the orchestral sound picture
swirls between the two channels. At
one or two points in the more intimate
reveries of the first movement the left
hand piano channel is answered with
chamber delicacy by the right hand channel
wind choirs. The effect, frankly, is
bizarre, one of the most singular examples
of left/right channel separation I’ve
ever heard. It renders most of the concerto
baffling to listen to. Blumental, most
of whose Brana recordings I’ve reviewed
on this site, is always an artist of
authority and sensitivity. Here she
tends to be surer with refinement and
sensitivity than with bravura. She sounds
curiously, deliberately, gabbled in
the first movement, almost as if she
was treating this as an exercise in
anti-majestic phrasing. Elsewhere whilst
her fingers are razor sharp one doesn’t
feel she was in especially sympathetic
a mood. Gielen – or the recording engineers
– can’t do much with the thin and acidic
orchestral strings ands there’s a want
of sonority and weight for which the
1957 recording date is surely only incidental.
The Arensky thankfully
is a better performance all round. She
was accompanied by Waldhans, a conductor
admired by Czech music lovers, in particular,
for his Fibich symphonies. The Arensky
has received a few recordings over the
years – probably Stephen Coombs’ Hyperion
is the best engineered and most tactile
in its drive – but this 1968 recording
has plenty to recommend it. Portentous
and dramatic, the Lisztian opening coalesces
with Chopinesque reflections. Blumental
is at her very best in the flexibility
of her cantabile playing in the opening
movement but the slow movement is equally
fine. The restrained tempo of the finale
has compensation in the shape of some
very rustic and folkish wind playing,
stern brass and a fine percussion section.
Collectors may want
to know that the Arensky was available
in America on Ars Classicum CD 115939.
Blumental admirers
who have followed the series thus far
will want to acquaint themselves with
her performances; generalists should
certainly hear the Arensky if they’ve
not already – it’s a most attractive,
big-boned but poetic piece, blustery
but intimate and clearly taking something
of Tchaikovsky’s bombast on board. As
for the latter concerto – prepare for
an aural ride of spectacular weirdness.
Jonathan Woolf
see also review
by John Leeman
Felicja Blumental (piano) 
