Reissue CD Reviews
Pnina Salzman, Vol. 5 = CHOPIN: Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat Minor, Op. 35 “Funeral March;” Piano Sonata No. 3 in B Minor, Op. 58; Andante Spianato and Grande Polonaise Brillante; Fantasie in F Minor, Op. 49; Valse in G-flat Major
Israeli keyboard virtuoso dazzles in Chopin program
Published on November 12, 2005
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Pnina Salzman, Vol. 5 = CHOPIN: Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat
Minor, Op. 35 “Funeral March;” Piano Sonata No. 3 in B Minor, Op. 58;
Andante Spianato and Grande Polonaise Brillante, Op. 22; Fantasie in F
Minor, Op. 49; Valse in G-flat Major, Op. 70, No. 1
Doremi DHR-7862 78:21 (Distrib. Allegro) ****:
A series of live performances, 1967-1983 by Pnina Salman (b. 1924), the Israeli keyboard virtuoso whose pedigree includes Alfred Cortot and Magda Tagliaferro. Considering the strength of her technique, the poetry in her temperament, and the range of her repertory, one must wonder why no major record company has documented the splendors of her art.
Salzman’s Chopin is supple and muscular, certainly a par with the playing of Martha Argerich, but with a decided French color, with a long, clean line that fills out the cadences with sensuous landings. While I find her Funeral March Sonata (6 June 1979) rather linear in approach, the B Minor Sonata (15 October 1975) has improved sound and enjoys all sorts of subtle, expansive niceties of pedal and rhythm which recall masters like Robert Casadesus. Salzman has her own ideas about tempo and transitions; and the opening movement, with its huge scale, emanates a nervous energy on a par with Lipatti’s classic rendition. She lingers most effectively in the trio of the Scherzo; the Largo receives a reflective, pointed, highly personalized reading - quite compelling. The Finale is all fire and muscle, nothing ladylike here.
At several points in her tumultuous Fantasie (15 May 1975), I likened Salzman’s approach to Jeanne Marie Darre, especially in the finely etched arioso passages, the clean martial lines of the marcato figures. A bit of too-close miking has the sound of the compressed pedals. The Andante Spianato (17 December 1983) might pass for a performance by Horowitz or even Hofmann, when his fingers were reliable. It has a diaphanous patina and an inexorable pulsation which combine for some scintillating Chopin, the Polonaise phrased in a style which Artur Rubinstein once categorized as an “iconoclastic classicism.” The dainty Waltz in G-flat (14 November 1967) simply and elegantly captures Chopin’s romantic, salon mystique after the colossal passions of the Fantasie. Record producer Jacob Harnoy provides not one sound of applause from any of these concerts; you’ll have to add that yourself. Remarkable Chopin playing which reminds me why I collect records!
--Gary Lemco
Doremi DHR-7862 78:21 (Distrib. Allegro) ****:
A series of live performances, 1967-1983 by Pnina Salman (b. 1924), the Israeli keyboard virtuoso whose pedigree includes Alfred Cortot and Magda Tagliaferro. Considering the strength of her technique, the poetry in her temperament, and the range of her repertory, one must wonder why no major record company has documented the splendors of her art.
Salzman’s Chopin is supple and muscular, certainly a par with the playing of Martha Argerich, but with a decided French color, with a long, clean line that fills out the cadences with sensuous landings. While I find her Funeral March Sonata (6 June 1979) rather linear in approach, the B Minor Sonata (15 October 1975) has improved sound and enjoys all sorts of subtle, expansive niceties of pedal and rhythm which recall masters like Robert Casadesus. Salzman has her own ideas about tempo and transitions; and the opening movement, with its huge scale, emanates a nervous energy on a par with Lipatti’s classic rendition. She lingers most effectively in the trio of the Scherzo; the Largo receives a reflective, pointed, highly personalized reading - quite compelling. The Finale is all fire and muscle, nothing ladylike here.
At several points in her tumultuous Fantasie (15 May 1975), I likened Salzman’s approach to Jeanne Marie Darre, especially in the finely etched arioso passages, the clean martial lines of the marcato figures. A bit of too-close miking has the sound of the compressed pedals. The Andante Spianato (17 December 1983) might pass for a performance by Horowitz or even Hofmann, when his fingers were reliable. It has a diaphanous patina and an inexorable pulsation which combine for some scintillating Chopin, the Polonaise phrased in a style which Artur Rubinstein once categorized as an “iconoclastic classicism.” The dainty Waltz in G-flat (14 November 1967) simply and elegantly captures Chopin’s romantic, salon mystique after the colossal passions of the Fantasie. Record producer Jacob Harnoy provides not one sound of applause from any of these concerts; you’ll have to add that yourself. Remarkable Chopin playing which reminds me why I collect records!
--Gary Lemco
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