Customer Reviews

Dohnányi: COMPLETE PIANO WORKS Vol. 1

5 star:		(1)
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3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
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I have found this to be a consistently fascinating recording. In repeated listenings, I have noticed no metronomic quality in the pianist's work -- only a perfect fluency and masterful ease, keeping pace at every point with the brilliant torrent of Dohnanyi's ideas. Nor have I noticed any harshness of recorded tone. It may be that I am not yet the pianist or listener that the preceding reviewer is. I am gratified that these rich, heartfelt, and exciting compositions should now be winning reknown.

Generally speaking, a very competent performance of some unjustly neglected compositions for solo piano. Pianist Markus Pawlik has unlimited technique, but his phrasing tends more to the metronomic than to the rhapsodic. That's too bad, because these pieces cry out for an ultra-romantic sensibility. The Naxos recording has a vivid and full presence which sometimes exaggerates the brightness of Pawlik's instrument and possibly contributes to the harsh sound evident in passages where big, fortissimo playing is required. Still, for the budget price, it's a great introduction to some fabulous piano compositions in the great Romantic style.

The sixth of Dohnanyi's six concert etudes op.28 was often played by Rachmaninov, and it is easy to hear why he would find it so appealing. The style of this, and all six etudes, is colorful and emoitionally laden late romanticism, full of memorable melodies, harmonic twists and turns and dazzling pyrotechnics. It is indeed something of a pity that they aren't more frequently heard, for these can easily compare with much of the standard romantic piano repertoire. The other works don't quite achieve the level of the etudes, however. Ruralia hungarica is of course a striking and stirringly memorable work, but even if it was originally conceived of as a piano work there is little doubt that the orchestral version is more effective. The gentle Pastorale is well worth hearing, a gently rolling, lyrical piece, and the Variations on a Hungarian Folk Song are eminently worthwhile if not really a great work (perhaps I am unfair; when composers treat Hungarian folk music in the piano medium I automatically compare them to Bartók, and it is little surprise that such a modestly charming work as Dohnanyi's Variations doesn't quite measure up). Markus Pawlik dispatches the etudes with flair and color - thoroughly convincing and hard to imagine much bettered - but is a little lackluster in the other works, in particular missing some of the ebullience and capriciousness of the Ruralia Hungarica. Still this is very good playing throughout. It is a pity that the sound is so unflattering, but I don't hesitate giving this one a rather firm recommendation.