Guiomar Novaes Vol. 2 = MOZART: Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor, K. 466; FALLA: Nights in the Garden of Spain – Guiomar Novaes, piano/ New York Philharmonic Orchestra/ Thomas Schippers – Yves St-Laurent YSL T-1665 (54:00) [www.78experience.com] ****:
Those who cherish the artistry of Brazilian virtuoso Guiomar Novaes (1895-1979) continue to appreciate an intuitive, delicately sensitive musician – as said as a commemorative alternative of Artur Schnabel, a pianist – capable of color nuances and expressive details in the music she championed: the Romantics, especially Chopin and Schumann, and the Spanish and Brazilian composers sympathetic to her sensibilities. Even in her youth, at a jury recital in 1909, her audition to attend the Conservatoire de Paris to study with Isidor Philipp, Claude Debussy had nothing but praise for her natural gifts. Debussy later wrote of her, “She has all the qualities of a great artist, eyes that are transported by music, and the power of complete inner concentration, which is a characteristic so rare in artists.” Her exceptional playing inspired her nickname, “the Paderewski of the Pampas,” alluding to the sheer range of colors she drew in her fond realizations of music by Mozart and Chopin.
Yves St-Laurent restores the New York Philharmonic concert of 5 March 1966 from Philharmonic Hall, Lincoln Center, New York City, at which Novaes and American conductor Thomas Schippers (1930-1977) collaborated in two works, by Mozart and Falla. Schippers, himself a fine exponent of operatic repertory, certainly elicits those dramatic energies in the 1785 D Minor Concerto of Mozart that correspond to aspects of the damnation scene of Don Giovanni. Novaes provides animated but artfully lyric melodic lines, alternately nervous and serene, as required. The elements of the sturm und drang movement in art passionately throb throughout the opening Allegro, whose potent momentum sails seamlessly through the double exposition and development up to the first movement’s brief cadenza, vehement and dazzlingly polyphonic before the orchestra bursts in to conclude what has been a thoughtfully tempestuous occasion.
The Romanza second movement rondo in B-flat major forever provides the perennial dream-sequence for this splendid concerto, and Novaes turns the moment into an instrumental aria of tranquil power, at least until the middle section, Allegro assai, interrupts with a G minor episode of fearsome passion. Novaes negotiates the tempestuous runs with fierce aplomb, only to relent at the da capo with a serenity that belies the mortal storm that had made its ferocious appearance. The last movement at first extends the passion in D minor, Allegro assai, Novaes and Schippers in tumultuous dialogue, the scurrying, Mannheim-rocket keyboard lines supported by equally incensed woodwinds. A bit of sun emerges in F major, a forecast of the music’s later deviation from the relentless sturm und drang to revert to the tonic major for the coda. The audience well knows the formula for this often-performed masterwork, but the sheer, enthusiastic propulsion afforded by Novaes and Schippers has won them over.
Falla’s 1915 triptych Nights in the Gardens of Spain treats the piano as an obbligato, orchestral instrument in the service of expressive nocturnes that exploit Andalusian and Moorish impulses in a versatile and seductive fashion. The opening sequence, set in the Generalife Gardens of the Alhambra, Grenada, proffers a sustained ostinato suggestive of guitars, their strumming an invitation to delights exotic and erotic. Sudden, dramatic gestures of color from the orchestra inflame Novaes’ keyboard to indulge in luscious cascades in arpeggios and to enter into dialogue with selective color instruments.
A smoky mist initiates the second movement, Distant Dance, a clear evocation of flamenco impulses and their innate seductiveness. The rhythms and color elements easily recall the more feverish aspects of El amor brujo. Novaes breaks out into a fervent statement echoed by the orchestra, and both succumb to a driving ostinato that quite mesmerizes our sensibilities. A lull in the progression proves deceptive, and Novaes and Schippers catapult us, attacca, to the final movement, The Gardens of the Sierra del Córdoba, where over a pounding rhythmic bass, a melody of potent, emotional weight emerges, almost an incantation, to carry us forward. The flamenco energies once more make their presence felt, eventually settling for a brooding, haunted version of the main theme, softly dying in the smoldering fires of the Iberian soul cultivated in a thoroughly French taste. The magical combination by our principals has been undeniably compelling. Sound quality of this restored concert has been first rate.
—Gary Lemco
