Program: CHOPIN: Polonaise in C Minor, Op. 40, No. 2; Nocturne in E-flat Major, Op. 55, No. 2; Prelude in C-sharp Minor, Op. 45; Piano Sonata No. 3 in B Minor, Op. 58; HAYDN: Sonata No. 46 in A-flat Major; MOZART: Sonata No. 11 in A Major, K. 331 – Ivo Pogorelich, piano
Studio: DGG 00440 073 4046
Video: 4:3, Color
Audio: PCM Stereo
Length: 112 minutes
Rating: ****
Filmed at the Racconigi Castle in Turin, Italy, April/May 1987, this video presents the youthful Ivo Pogorelich (b. 1958), the Croatian keyboard superstar whose prominence rose as judge Martha Argerich resigned when Pogorelich failed to make the third round of the Chopin Competition in Warsaw, 1980. Since then, Pogorelich has gleaned as many catcalls as kudos for his eccentric, often willful–or just plain unprepared–music making.
Directed by Horant H. Hohlfeld, the video purposely lingers on Pogorelich’s long-fingered hands and expressive face, Icon-Making 101. The liner notes, entitled “Rebel With a Cause,” confirms the James Dean approach to this lanky pianist. Pogorelich opens with Chopin’s moody, stormy C Minor Polonaise, which permits Pogorelich opportunities alternately to pet or pound his Hamburg Steinway. The caresses can be unbelievably soft, while a sudden sforzato to can cause you to blink. The ever-so-slow unfolding of the Nocturne in E-flat Major turns the sound into haunted raindrops, each phrase reluctantly admitting Chopin’s idiosyncratic harmony. He takes the last chords as slowly as the end of the Sibelius Fifth Symphony. The C-sharp Minor Prelude proves erotic enough to seduce all of George Sand’s descendants, though the cadences wax percussive. The B Minor Sonata, for all of the warm affection it receives, dies of its own immortality. Pogorelich takes every repeat, each lingering longer than its predecessor; the trio of the Scherzo virtually sinks to the bottom of the sea. The Largo might well be filled with formaldehyde, so reluctantly do any of the phrases wish to part from the keyboard. The last movement Presto returns to normal tempo; even so, Pogorelich manages a few unique harmonic patterns from the sheer welter of notes. But it’s too little sanity too late.
Haydn’s rippling figures for the A-flat Sonata arrive at the same swollen fate as the Chopin, glittering rivulets that repeatedly rise to Niagara Falls. The Scarlatti influence is there, but the distended fabric of the sonata-allegro form obviates the natural tension of the whole. Occasionally, we hear an adumbration of Beethoven’s Op. 2, No. 3. The Adagio lasts longer than many whole sonatas, 13 minutes. Whether it be love or warped possessiveness, the sounds are pretty. Fluid runs mark the closing Presto--with its forward look to Beethoven’s Op. 27, No. 1–the tempo again an indication that musical health is available to Pogorelich when he so desires.
The Mozart A Major Sonata pens with an Andante theme and six variations that only invite Pogorelich to do what he does best–linger obstinately. The first variant does indeed move, but somewhere in the middle variations he succumbs to the temptation to star in that horror classic, ‘The Thing That Wouldn’t Leave.’ The stately Menuet starts and stops in a way that can only be described as mannered, despite the rounded, clarion tone which Pogorelich projects. The periods are broad enough to invoke comparisons to Bruckner. At last, we reach the awaited Rondo alla Turca, rendered with pearly and suave sang-froid by Pogorelich, and in proper tempo. He swallows the little textural variants in one gulp, tiny orchestras competing with one another. At least this is music Mozart actually had in mind.
— Gary Lemco
