Customer Reviews

Scriabin: Sonata No. 3; Five Preludes; Medtner: Sonata Reminiscenza; Stravinsky: Three Movements from Pétrouchka

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When the host of CBC Radio "Sound Advice" Rick Phillips played few extracts from this CD, I was intrigued. When he gave it 3 stars, I was even more intrigued - it certainly didn't make any sense. And in order to have a clear picture I got this recording and listened to it.
This CD is a success! Kissin catches well Skryabin's style, sensuous on the one hand and impulsive on the other. Third Sonata is nicely structured and its slow movement mesmerizes. Skryabin's preludes, made of crystal, are little orchid-like gems. Medtner's piece has beautiful moments, nice touch in lyrical episodes. The interpretation of Stravinsky is simply incredible! You forget it's a piano - colors, timbres, steel rhythm, excellent conducting thinking - you have a full orchestra and the Bolshoi Theatre ballet in front of you. Kissin's pianism is impressive, nothing escapes his sensitive ear. I give it 5 stars. Excellent work!

Scriabin is generally less accessable to listeners because of the composer's later style. Nonetheless, works such as the Ninth Sonata "Black Mass" and the progressive Fifth Sonata are frequently performed. It's no surprise, however still disappointing, that Kissin sticks to earlier works by Scriabin. Sonata No. 3 is probably the most accessible work by the composer. Nonetheless, Kissin delivers a spectacular performance of the work. You will notice when you first hear the first movement, you will be gripped by it almost instantly. This work was practically written for Kissin. My only complaint about the performance is that the last movement gets a little bit out of control in terms of clarity with Kissin's intensity, but not too much so. Nevertheless, I would say this is the definitive recording of this work.

I wish that Kissin had selected something other than the set of preludes included on this disc. They are beautifully played, but not one of the more interesting works by Scriabin. It is filler. Selected etudes from Op. 8 would be be better, particularly a rendition of the d# minor etude.

I'm not really that opinionated on the Medtner piece. It is well played, but I don't expect people will be buying the CD for that piece alone. If you're looking for the standard for the Medtner piece, look for the Gilels recording.

The main reason I bought this CD was for the Stravinsky Petrouchka. Until now, I had felt that the standard for this work was Pollini's well-known recording on DG. Kissin achieves an impressive palette of sound in his performance. It's much more interesting to listen to than the cold Pollini rendition. It achieves a great balance between Pollini's technical perfection, which Kissin achieves or surpasses even, and Gilel's color.

To summarize: Spectacular recordings of both the Stravinsky Petrouchka and the Scriabin Sonata. Highly recommended. However, don't expect much change from the usual Kissin formula.

I heard Evgeny Kissin play all of the works on this disc in two separate concerts. Like the live accounts, they are played about as well as is humanly possible to play them (and then some).

Most of Scriabin's music is something of an acquired taste - I've been trying to "get" his music for many years, but I just can't. The word 'brutal' is the only word I can think of to describe it. I know from having tried to sight read some the scores myself, that almost all of it is extremely difficult.

Having said that, the Preludes and Sonata No.4 are immensely enjoyable in Kissin's hands. He practically paints the music, achieving gradations of touch and tone that make it sound better than it is.

I had never heard any of Medtner's works before and this Sonata is a good introduction. The piece seems like it's on the verge of breaking out into Chopin's style of lyricism, but not quite getting there. I found Kissin's playing of it to be completely convincing. And again, his tone throughout is really beautiful.

Right from the beginning, Petrushka is all glitter and dazzle and Kissin milks it for all it's worth. His technique is so amazing that I found myself asking: how is is possible for anyone to play like this? I had the same reaction when I heard him play it at his last recital in DC.

Part of the reason that I give this CD such high marks is the recorded sound itself. It's just about ideal: resonant, without any harshness in tone (except when the music requires it).

The world had not seen the level of pianistic talent for decades that Kissin displayed already as a pre-teen. The maturing Kissin became the preeminent classical superstar of the 1990s and 2000s. Critics and audiences have seldom questioned his piano playing per se, which remains superhuman in concert as well as on record. However, what certain quarters started to hear in the late 1990s was a decline in that natural, perhaps youthful, spontaneous music-making which had separated Kissin from virtually any living rival.

For me, his Moonlight Sonata of 1998 was a surprising and major disappointment--somewhere between stiff and indifferent. Things got worse in the Chopin Preludes, Mussorgsky Pictures, and his shift from RCA to EMI, with a new emphasis on piano concertos, did not improve things much--although his Prokofiev Concertos disc of last year indeed earned rave reviews and a Grammy Award. However, the great shining exception is this final* disc on RCA, recorded in August 2004 at the usual SWR-Studio, Freiburg, where the sound tends to be realistic but close and dry.

Kissin on stupendous form in three-and-a-half great Russian piano works--well, a perfect recipe turned into one of the best piano records I have yet come across (including a number of thousands). Of course, it helps that Scriabin's Third Sonata contains the most beautiful piece of music ever written for the piano (see my picture to the left for the opening bars), and that Stravinsky's Petrushka Movements remains the ultimate pianistic calling card (markedly few are fully up to its challenges).

Kissin plays with an unimprovable combination of effortless technique, beautiful tone, tasteful rubato and large-scale projection. I am perfectly confident this level of pianism will not be surpassed for a long time. The only thing I can say to provide a balanced perspective is that his playing may be just too large-scale for the first movement of the Scriabin Sonata--which I believe should sound more intimate à la Lettberg in her (near)complete Scriabin survey (another treasure I cannot urge enough anyone with an interest in Scriabin's music to seek out). That said, Kissin's rendition of that angelic third movement is no less than five-and-a-half minutes of glimpsing into paradise--or, if I may borrow Steven Wigler's exquisite portrayal from the booklet notes, 'Its shimmering, transparent figurations seem literally luminous. The movement's close, with the melody in the left hand, conjures up a vision of tintinnabular silver bells in moonlight'.

The Three Movements from Petrushka has never before sounded so much the musical masterpiece it is; Kissin's technical abilities, which seem literally boundless, allow him to paint with a complete palette of colours. Especially the Chez Pétrouchka, taken half-a-minute-or-so slower than by most other pianists, is gloriously refined and seductive. Medtner's Sonata Reminiscenza may not be as great as its companions here. However, Kissin's marvellous playing offers sufficient help to more than sustain tension throughout the 16-minute course of the work. Scriabin's five Op 15 Preludes, placed first on the disc, are the ne plus ultra appetizer to a rare feast of pianistic delicacies. Indeed, Kissin at his best simply has no rivals!

REFERENCES: All Works--This One

* This disc received a Grammy Award in 2005. The Chopin Verbier Festival Recital was recorded in July 2004 but only released in January 2007.

I have only heard the performance of the Medtner Sonata Reminiscenza from this disc. Kissin makes a mess of one of my favorite works, using a kind of all-purpose rubato in almost every bar. The Medtner is a huge piece that demands a firm structural grasp as is evidenced in Gilels's classic recordings. Compared with Gilels, Kissin has yet to understand the overall design of the sonata. Gilels uses rubato much more subtly, so that when he does make an expressive point it has a far greater effect: indeed his performances are heart-breaking. If all I knew of this work was Kissin's performance, I would probably never want to hear the piece again.