Igor Stravinsky Vol IV. Philharmonia/Robert Craft (Koch International Classics)
The fourth volume of Koch's Stravinsky series concentrates on music from the composer's fifties and sixties: the 1936 ballet, Jeu de cartes, the Symphony in Three Movements (1942-5) and the 1945 version of the Firebird ballet. The symphony was influenced by impressions of "our arduous time of sharp and shifting events, of despair and hope, of continual torments, of tension, and at last cessation and relief". Craft's Philharmonia performance has an almost loose-limbed al fresco drive, nicely touched with delicacy and quite the opposite of the obsessive exactitude of Boulez's recent Berlin version. With gently-tilted melodic shaping and a distanced recording perspective, Craft achieves a delightful natural blend of textures in Jeu de cartes, and if the Firebird Suite is on the cool side, that's probably the way the composer wanted it by 1945.
D'Anglebert: Pieces de clavecin. Christophe Rousset (harpsichord) (Decca, 2 CDs)
The French harpsichordist Christophe Rousset is obviously enraptured by the harpsichord music of Jean-Henry D'Anglebert (1635-1691), a figure dwarfed from a modern perspective by the greater men who followed him, especially the towering Francois Couperin. Rousset argues D'Anglebert's case in print, and his playing conveys an equal if expressively more vivid passion for his subject. With its elaborate ornamentation and use of rhythmically free preludes, D'Anglebert's style presents a forest of pitfalls for the performer. Rousset, who omits transcriptions from this "complete" recording, manages to stretch the melodic fabric as necessary without distorting the rhythmic flow. His 1620s Ruckers harpsichord, once owned by the family of the Marquis de Sade, is captured with appropriate richness.
Piano Masters: Maryla Jonas (Pearl GEMM 0077). Piano Masters: Witold Malcuzynski (Pearl GEMM 0095)
DO the history books ever get it right? Maryla Jonas, who died in 1959 at the age of 48, hasn't even been granted a footnote in the history of piano playing. Her life appears to have been a mixed tragedy of oppression and ill-health, but the recordings she made in the US in the 1940s testify to an extraordinary resilience of spirit. Her handling of Chopin, especially a group of Mazurkas, is remarkable - noble, individual, rich in fantasy and rhythmically firm-spined in spite of strong rubato. Her fellow Pole, Witold Malcuzynski (1914-77), was a great and popular name in his time. Pearl's 1940s collection of concertos (Chopin 2, Liszt 2) and shorter pieces (Chopin and Szymanowski) shows a fine keyboard talent. A musical vision that's not always consistent or finely focused doesn't quite match the achievement of the pianism.
