Customer Reviews

Pictures at an Exhibition

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For awhile I've been a fan of Ugorski's milking everything possible from the written notes, but this disc just rubs me the wrong way. A lot of architecture and structure are lost, the music constantly falls apart, one is constantly made aware of where Maestro Anatol's fingers are and what they're doing, but I regrettably miss out on too much of the music. Too much whimsy, it's just entirely too wayward, I'm sorry, but I was expecting these performances to be monumental and breathtaking... There's an incredible sense of magic, I'll give it that, but it feels almost like piano for beginners, like a sort of cop out from an aged pianist who no longer has the goods but indulges himself and his loyal following -- but, the thing is, this guy definitely still has chops, but he just gets way too carried away with trying to reinvent the wheel that he just can't see the forest for the trees. Or some such hackneyed nonsense.

"Ugorski Plays Mussorgsky." Isn't that a great title? But there's also Stravinsky to contend with here. What binds these two works, besides both being Russian, is their demands for a pianist of utmost virtuosity. Pianists will tell you these are two of the toughest pieces out there, and many many distinguished virtuosi have gone their entire careers without ever playing them, at least in public. Anatol Ugorski is a musician for whom I have the highest respect, and he should be able to tackle these works as well as anyone out there today. But ultimately this CD is unsatisfying, I'm afraid.

The reason has nothing to do with a lack of ability but rather the pianist's excessively fussy approach to the music, which robs both pieces of their direct, rhythmic power. Both of these are somewhat "barbaric"--almost like the Rite of Spring for piano. They have regular, harsh rhythms that are stamped out again and again, for example. They have big, thundering chords. They are not subtle. With the exception of a few bits in the inner sections of the Stravinsky, they are not deep works. I often recommend both to friends who are hard-core rock fans, to show them that classical music isn't all daintiness as PBS would have one believe. And these people usually come away impressed.

But these versions are filled with little mannerisms--agogic accents, odd pauses, all manner of rubato--that get in the way of the rhythms and contours of the music. There's a place for poetry but not in the middle of a passage that's a forte repetition in the left hand eight times--you don't pause in the fifth repetition to reflect. You wouldn't interject random pauses in the eight-sixteenth dotted notes of the first movement of the Beethoven 7th to break up the dance-like character of the movement. (At least I think they're eight-sixteenths with dots. It's been a while. Anyway, you get my point.) And for that reason, I am disappointed here.

Of the two works Petrushka scores better here. There's more opportunity for meaningful rubato and "reflection" while playing the score, and the introspective interludes are well-handled. But even here the romping build of the last section are lost in a forest of tiny tempo modulations and dynamic shadings that ultimately don't add up to very much. You keep waiting for the intensity to come out but in the end it almost feels like we're being teased and toyed with.

As usual with Ugorski, there's his trademark gorgeous, and I mean gorgeous, tone. In parts such as Pictures' Great Gate of Kiev, there is some phenomenally transparent playing where I could hear, for the first time in a recording of this work, every note in a chord. And no one alive can make a piano ring out like some giant magnificent bell the way Ugorski can. (Start listening to Kiev at around 3:00 in.) I've never heard him live (not many people have) but I'd cross oceans to attend an Ugorski recital, just to hear this clarity in person.

But all the fussing with tempi and shape just zap the energy out of these works. They feel too thought-over. This approach works wonders for Brahms--indeed, Ugorski's recording of the three Brahms sonatas are among the finest I've ever heard--but not here, not to me. For Petrushka I've yet to hear Pollini's 1973 recording on the same label bettered, and for Pictures, either of Richter's two live performances is mandatory and hair-raising. I can't recommend this disc except for the golden tone...which in itself is not insignificant and may be a reason to purchase this disc. If you can find it.