Shura Cherkassky: The Complete HMV Stereo Recordings = BACH (arr. Busoni): Chaconne in D Minor; BEETHOVEN: Bagatelle in G Minor, Op. 119, No. 1; SCHUBERT: Impromptu No. 4 in A-flat Major, D. 899; CHOPIN: Mazurka in F Minor, Op. 7, No. 3; Waltz No. 1 in E-flat Major, Op. 18; Nocturne in D-flat Major, Op. 27, No. 2; Ballade No. 2 in F, Op. 38; Ballade No. 3 in A-flat Major, Op. 47; LISZT: Hungarian Rhapsody No. 13 in A Minor; Waltz from Gounod’s “Faust”; LITOLFF: Scherzo; SAINT-SAENS: The Swan (arr. Godowsky); Lyadov: A Musical Snuffbox, Op. 32; RACHMANINOV: Prelude in G Minor, Op. 23, No. 5; Prelude in B-flat Major, Op. 23, No. 2; GERSHWIN: 3 Preludes; CHASINS: Three Chinese Pieces; POULENC: Toccata – Shura Cherkassky, piano/BBC Symphony Orchestra/Sir Malcolm Sargent
First Hand Records Remasters FHR04, 2 CDs – 68:01; 50:53 [www.firsthandrecords.com] ****:
To celebrate the 100th anniversary of Shura Cherkassky (1909-1995), First Hand issues all of the willful pianist’s HMV records in stereo, those made between 1956 and 1958. Cherkassky often played familiar repertory in novel ways, occasionally twisting the music to suit his own ego. Perhaps a legacy from his own teacher Josef Hofmann, Cherkassky’s exploitation of the musical values to produce an idiosyncratic effect made him among the last of the true Romantics: his ability to make gorgeous tone of the keyboard itself justifies admission into his magic circle. We hear vivid color touches in Beethoven’s G Minor Bagatelle, certainly; but several of the variants in the Bach Chaconne already point to a grand, sustained line and the capacity to shade any number of dynamic indications. The fluid rendering of the A-flat Schubert Impromptu, with its lovely “cello” melody and running figures, its agitated middle section, and its liquid da capo enjoy all the earmarks of a Cherkassky incursion into poetry.
The Chopin group comes by way of Cherkassky’s Odessa training, and the inflections ring with zal and pompous éclat. The Mazurka has a heavy tread, yes, but it is no less sensual for that. The E-flat Waltz marks Chopin’s love affair with Vienna, a suave moment of whirling brilliance on light, salon feet reminiscent of those sported by Dinu Lipatti. For gorgeous pearly-play, easily bearing the comparison with Lipatti, the D-flat Nocturne purrs evanescent magic, though I always thought Cherkassky’s true forte the F Minor, Op. 55, No. 1. After soft opening sequence in folkish figures, the big theme of the F Major Ballade bursts forth then resides in the composer’s rarified polyphony. The stretti at the coda rock with poetic violence as ripe with fury as anything from Jorge Bolet. Delicate tracery for the Ballade in A-flat, its three-register theme singing with affectionate ardor into its rocking motif, a schoolgirl’s gallop and trill, as Huneker might have quipped. Liszt’s A Minor Rhapsody, a longtime favorite of diverse personalities like Levitzky and Dichter, has Cherkassky alternately imitating the sultry cimbalom and the gypsy fiddle, the repeated notes florid with seamless mastery. The 1861 Valse from Faust (rec. 22 March 1956) has Cherkassky competitive with Georgy Cziffra for bold fioritura in Liszt, with the middle section’s evocation of “O nuit d’amour” displaying Cherkassky’s facility in blatantly romantic rhetoric that echoes the Jeux d‘eau a la Villa d‘Este or the St. Paul Bird Sermon Legend.
The exciting ticket on disc two is the 27 May 1958 nuanced inscription of the Litolff Scherzo from the London Proms with Malcolm Sargent, a perennial show-stopper for keyboard and the triangle, obviously influenced by Liszt’s E-flat Concerto. The Musical Snuffbox by Lyadov (1893) features Cherkassky’s slowing down the chimed last page as the little mechanical toy loses power. Of Abram Chasins’ Three Chinese Pieces, collectors recall the Rush Hour in Hong Kong remained in Cherkassky’s repertory as his calling-card encore. So, too, Saint-Saens’ The Swan, one of the few Godowsky transcriptions Cherkassky felt had not been overly ornamented as to obscure the melodic tissue. The blazing, tempestuous B-flat Prelude of Rachmnaninov (17 March 1958) makes us wish Cherkassky had committed a fuller group to recorded posterity. The middle section of the G Minor Prelude drips with intimations of Cherkassky’s teacher Josef Hofmann. American composition figured heavily in Cherkassky’s repertory, and the Three Preludes (1926) align Cherkassky with Levant and Wild as chief classical arbiters of the Gershwin syncopated-blues style.
An appendix adds alternate (stereo) takes of the Gershwin Preludes and the Chopin A-flat Ballade, both from 1958. A solid set dedicated to a wonderfully impish and singular keyboard artist. But may I inquire of that most elusive of Cherkassky HMV records, his mono Rachmaninov Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with Herbert Menges–might not its 23-minute length have accommodated itself to this second disc? Maybe next time.
–Gary Lemco
