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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Advice for Scriabin collectors,
By
This review is from: Scriabin: Complete Sonatas (Audio CD)
This set is one of the great tragedies of recorded music. Ponti is a great Scriabin player, despite the occasional side-swiped notes. Unfortunately, the sound of the sonatas in this set is virtually unlistenable-fryingly over bright treble and boomy bass--it sounds like it was recorded by someone used to recording rock. The performances aren't coarse and harsh, but the sound IS, and the recording engineer should be taken out and shot!
It's a tragedy, because the playing is marvellous, if a little lacking in finish (I suspect this set was recorded very quickly). The other pieces in the set are more listentably recorded. I found that adjusting the tone controls to treble at 9:00 and bass at 10:00 renders everything except the sonatas much easier to take. Unfortunately, if one wants Ponti's Scriabin complete (even if one chooses to supplement his sonatas with something in better sound) one has to buy both this set and his set of the "Complete Piano Music" on five CD's. That's actually not so bad--the sets are cheap enough. However, if merely getting the complete Scriabin is your goal, there are alternatives. 1. There's a really excellent 8-disc set of all Scriabin works with opus numbers available on Capriccio played by Maria Lettberg. This is really first-rate, and can form the basis of your Scriabin collection Das Solo-Klavierwerk. The set can also be downloaded as MP3's from the NAXOS website. 2. Two possibilities here: Lettberg doesn't play any of the posthumously-published early Scriabin. Most of this is available on Coombs's CD, "The Early Scriabin," (The Early Scriabin.). Unfortunately, he omits the early "Albumleaves" in F-sharp and A-flat and the Fantasy for Two Pianos. All of the pieces Coombs plays plus everything he doesn't are in Ponti's set called "Complete Piano Music" Complete Piano Works of Scriabin. The sound of this set can be rendered fairly listenable with the tone controls. To sum up: Get Lettberg's set. Add the early works she doesn't play with Coomb's "The Early Scriabin", OR, (for absolute completeness) from the "complete piano music" set by Ponti. And oh, yes, you might want another set of the sonatas--these pieces are so multi-faceted that you might want more than one interpretation-my personal favorite is Hamelin. RE the Sonata in E-flat minor: This work has come down to us unfinished. Although I personally prefer Ponti's completion of the unfinished slow movement to Glemser's or Coombs's, his recording is rather out of the running because he plays the wrong first movement--i.e., the revised version of the first movement as the "Allegro appassionato, Op.4"--how did THAT happen? I hope this helps!
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lean and mean Scriabin ... you know you like it!,
By
This review is from: Scriabin: Complete Sonatas (Audio CD)
The wide divergence of review comments about this CD reflects the difference of opinion and preference for how Scriabin's music should be played. As a member of the Scriabin Society of America, I've personally seen and heard many different interpretations of many of these sonatas ... along with strong opinions voiced both pro and con.
In the end, it all comes down to whether you like your Scriabin lean and taut ... or prefer him broad and expansive. I come down on the "lean" side, which is why I enjoy these performances. Michael Ponti misses some notes here and there, but when your Scriabin is almost going off the edge, that's what happens. Scriabin should never sound "pretty" -- especially in the Sonatas. Yes, there are moments of sheer exquisiteness to savor, but ultimately this is music that stretches the bounds of tonality and rattles the structural cage, trying to break free. Once you've heard Ponti's take on Sonatas 4 and 5 -- or the Black and White Mass Sonatas for that matter -- you'll never again be satisfied with a merely "correct" or "poised" reading. That's selling Scriabin WAY too short ... but it's what 80% of the other pianists do. Oh yeah, but they might get all the notes correct.
16 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Sloppy, bombastic, and with poor sound quality,
By SRS (Ohio) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Scriabin: Complete Sonatas (Audio CD)
I can't accept wrong notes unless the performance is live, even though his crazed performance of the youthful E flat minor sonata (with the wrong final movement, by the way) is interesting, although ultimately unsatisfying. There are two sets of the Scriabin sonatas to avoid. Ogdon's and Ponti's. Like Ponti, Ogdon seriously lacks polish and hits some wrong notes, too. His performances are coarse, harsh, and difficult to listen to at all. Of the two sets, I'd rather listen to Ponti's.
Here's a breakdown for my suggested recordings of the sonatas, based on those I've heard: G#m posthumous: Hamelin. Ebm posthumous: Glemser. No. 1: Kocyan, then Ashkenazy, then Taub. Kocyan tells a story. Ashkenazy is passionate. Taub is darker. No. 2: Kocyan, then Glemser or Sofronitsky, then Ashkenazy. Kocyan's fluidity takes it, but Sofronitsky is artistic. Glemser's first movement is beautiful. No. 3: Laredo or Horowitz. Then Glemser or Taub. Then Ashkenazy or Sofronitsky. No. 4: Taub or Sofronitsky. The latter has more artistry, the former a more coherent and appropriate tone. No. 5: Horowitz or Taub. The former has electric genius, the latter has wonderful refinement. Hamelin's is excellent (definitely his best Scriabin performance). I've heard that Richter's is great, but I don't have it. No. 6: Richter (genius but bad sound quality), then Taub. Hamelin's is athletic and precise, but there is little mystery. No. 7: Glemser, then Laredo. The former brings out all the complexity with precision, the latter is sharp and clear. I have not heard Richter's. No. 8: Ashkenazy. Then Szidon or Laredo. I've read that Sofronitsky's is good, but I don't have it. No. 9: Sofronitsky, then Horowitz (all versions), then Glemser, then Szidon and Taub. No. 10: Horowitz or Taub. Same contrast of styles between the pianists as the fifth sonata. Like the fifth, this is Taub's other brilliant performance. Other pieces: Fantasy in B minor: Glemser Vers la flamme: Sofronitsky or Horowitz, then Laredo. Piano concerto: Ugorski/Boulez, then Ashkenazy/Maazel. Both are excellent, but I give the edge to Ugorski. Poem of Ecstasy: Maazel Prometheus: Ashkenazy/Maazel
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