BRAHMS: Piano Concerto No. 1 in D Minor, Op. 15; MOZART: Piano Sonata in B-flat Major, K. 333 – Solomon, piano/RAI Turin Orchestra/Lorin Maazel
Guild GHCD 2353, 66:58 [Distrib, by Albany] ****:
With this rare and vital issue of the Brahms D Minor Concerto from 1956 with Solomon Cutner (1902-1988), we have a third conception to complement those prior instantiations with Rafael Kubelik (for EMI) and Eugen Jochum. Solomon suffered a debilitating stroke in this same year, and although he lived thirty more years, he never appeared before the public again. He crystalline technique and superb rhythmic sense made him to British keyboard playing what Lipatti conveyed to the Rumanian school, the soul of poetic clarity. Master of the long line, Solomon still manages to imbue selective poetry into the Brahms gravitas, the surging 6/4 and ¾ metric shifts notwithstanding. The young Maazel accounts himself well, allowing Solomon a broad license to shift the ebb and flow of melancholy according to his own lights. The microphone placement could be better, however, and the keyboard occasionally takes on a hollow acoustic. When Solomon does take off, though, say in his onrush to the colossal stretti that lead to the quasi-waltz sequence, the momentum quite sweeps up the orchestra to an inevitable sense of return for the recapitulation, with its fateful tympani part. A slight ritardando from Solomon, some non-legato chords, and we plunge into the throes of the coda, a descent into the Brahms maelstrom from which we need a long breath.
The D Major Adagio basks in autumnal nostalgia, a requiem for the spirits of Schumann and the composer’s revered mother. Ever economical, Brahms utilizes riffs from the opening movement in long notes for the slow movement. Horns and woodwinds provide a haloed support for Solomon’s plangent, slow arioso in scales of brittle resignation. The pearly line extends, staggers, draws itself up and moves to the entry of the clarinets for the surging, even gripping climax that gives birth to another set of meditative arpeggios, a personalized interpretation that must serve as a litany to Solomon’s own interrupted artistry. The Rondomarcato in the re-statement of the main theme has come to inhabit a militant universe, almost a Teutonic polonaise. The brief cadenza pays homage to Schumann and to Solomon’s own, fleet capacity for brilliant cascades and reverberant trills against a recitative. The coda achieves sunlight and liberated aether, a testament to the sublime art of collaboration, a quality the Italian spectators well apprieciate, has Solomon proceeding with a touch of articulated reticence, perhaps more “methodical” than standard, virtuoso readings insist upon. When Solomon does open up the filigree, it has the plastic motion of some of the composer’s keyboard waltzes. The orchestra then erupts in a fury, wherein Solomon purrs and trills serenely to the next ritornello.
The middle section enjoys a demure dancing quality; even the ensuing counterpoint has a touch of Mendelssohn about it. The tinge of Whereas critical reaction to the 1955 Solomon/Kubelik EMI recording always remained tepid, this energized account from Maazel should compel many a collector to return to its inspired precincts. The Mozart Sonata (28 August 1956) from the BBC confirms Solomon’s repute as among the most secure in the gracious, galant and Italianate style of the 1782 piece, a brilliant display of plastic fiortiutra and transcribed operatic gestures. The music box clarity of the opening movement, the ease of transition and even scales, the sinewy, lone line, certify to a steel hand dipped in royal velvet. The force of the development, with its seething Alberti bass, quite compel our prolonged respect. A tender aria marks the entire Andante cantabile, where competing registers and dynamics manage a healthy resolution. Wit, charm, the light hand, each contributes to the buoyant Allegretto grazioso, performed by master stolen from us at the height of his uncanny powers.
–Gary Lemco
