LISZT - Piano Sonata in B Minor/Benediction de Dieu dans la solitude/Consolation No.3/Valse Oubliee No.1/En Reve Michael Houstoun (piano) TRUST MMT 2008
reviewed 1/00
Who would have ever thought we would be able to choose between two New Zealand-made CD recordings of one of the greatest of all works for solo piano, the Liszt B Minor Piano Sonata? Naturally enough, the work’s been recorded by anybody who’s anybody in the virtuoso pianistic firmament; so anybody bold and free enough to commit their interpretation to disc has to compete with the likes of Horowitz, Richter, Gilels, Arrau, Brendel, Cherkassky, Curzon, Bolet, Argerich, Pollini........imagine trying to find something distinctive to bring to a work that has already been recorded by these keyboard giants (along with about forty other versions currently available)!
The work is possibly Liszt’s finest single creative achievement - a one-movement sonata which encompasses an astonishing expressive range alongside intellectual mastery of form and structure. The finest performances take the listener right into the cauldron of creativity, to experience at first hand the molten flow of ideas unleashed by the composer from the different themes announced at the work’s beginning. Opinions differ as to whether Liszt had a programme in mind when writing this music - such an authority as Alfred Brendel considers it a work of absolute music, whose raison d’etre is itself; whereas Eugene Albulescu in his thought-provoking notes accompanying his recording argues for a spiritually based scheme representing creation, man’s fall from grace, and subsequent redemption.
Conveniently enough, our two pianists under review here approach the work quite differently: both are equipped technically to meet all of Liszt’s prodigiously difficult demands, and both project the music with the utmost conviction. According to the booklet notes, Albulescu’s Sonata recording was made in a single unedited take, which goes some way towards explaining its extraordinary impulsiveness. It FEELS like a live performance in a way that Houstoun’s doesn’t manage to do, for all the latter’s undoubted power and momentum. There’s an exhilarating sense of risk-taking with Albulescu, underlined by occasional minor slips in passagework which matter not a jot - in fact, for me they add to the excitement of hearing a performer obviously at full stretch and giving his utmost in music that demands no less.
Houstoun, too, gives his all, but his playing doesn’t sound as spontaneous as Albulescu’s. Even in the most exciting and hair-raising passages there’s a sense that everything’s been thoroughly worked out beforehand and applied accordingly. One suspects that Houstoun’s performance of the piece would hardly vary from performance to performance - while the reverse seems true of Albulescu’s playing. Houstoun would appear to be fulfilling Alfred Brendel’s dictum concerning the piece as "absolute music", by keeping a tight rein on the structure and making less free with tempo and dynamic contrasts. But once again it seems to this listener that it’s Albulescu whose quicksilver playing makes the music flow more organically, and conversely draws the threads together - as the distinguished critic Antony Hopkins once remarked, Liszt’s achievement in this music is akin to somebody giving a speech about horses, trees and eggs, and convincing us by the end of the discourse that horses live in trees and lay eggs!
Two other considerations dispose me in favour of Albulescu’s recording - the couplings, and the recorded sound. Albulescu plays a wider range of Liszt’s other piano music, from the unbuttoned hi-jinks of the Waltz from Gounod’s "Faust", to the sombre and enigmatic processional of the second "La lugubre Gondola", while Houstoun gives us pieces which contrast with the Sonata’s high drama, reflective in mood and largely undemonstrative in means. Both programmes work well as entities, though Albulescu’s gives the uninitiated listener more of an idea of the variety and scope of Liszt’s achievement as a composer for the piano.
Nowhere in the accompanying booklet to Albulescu’s disc is credit given to a recording producer or engineer - merely information regarding the venue (Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington) and the equipment used. Did Albulescu himself supervised the whole venture? If so, Trust should employ him as a consultant the next time they make solo piano recordings. Albulescu’s piano is perfectly placed, the biggest climaxes easily contained without harshness or excessive reverberation, and the quieter moments warm-toned and beautifully sustained. By contrast, Houstoun’s piano sounds as if it’s packed with cotton wool, with little resonance in the bass and a treble that verges on stridency in passages above forte; though your ear adjusts as you listen. Even so, music such as the "Benediction de Dieu dans la Solitude" needs more warmth and resonance than Houstoun’s engineers and the Ilott Concert Chamber in Wellington seem able to give him. As the sound resembles that in the recordings of his final two instalments of Beethoven Piano Sonatas (also with Trust) one must conclude that it’s the kind of sound he likes and considers appropriate for the music.
Both performances of the Sonata would merit discussion alongside currently available recordings world-wide, which says something for the level of attainment contemporary New Zealand musicians are achieving. Now, if only the NZSO would get themselves a permanent resident conductor...........