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 Brahms: Music for Two Pianos. Emanuel Ax and Yefim Bronfman, pianists. Sony Classical 89868Two-piano teams often must grapple with challenges special to their medium. There is the unwieldy sight of two gargantuan instruments pushed back-to-back on stage, the pianists peering at one another across a 10-foot divide. Then there is the sound: 20 fingers on 176 keys can produce a clattery earful if gone unchecked. But as this all-Brahms recording suggests, duo teams also have the potential to take on works originally conceived for orchestra or chamber ensemble and show them in a fresh light.
Brahms originally composed his Variations on a Theme by Haydn for orchestra and the Sonata in F Minor, Op. 34b, for string quintet, though the work eventually morphed into its best-known version, a quintet for piano and strings. In the two-piano accounts of these works on this CD, the listener gains a good sense of how the composer thought and worked. Inner musical lines that often get obscured by the monochromatic sound of two keyboards here come to the foreground.The credit for this goes to the performers Emanuel Ax and Yefim Bronfman, pianists who have built a distinctive partnership over the years. Bronfman, who studied at Juilliard in the late 1970s, hails from the Russian school of powerhouse playing, and he wrings drama from seemingly any score he touches. Ax, conversely, is a more poetic spirit, fastidious but passionate. (He attended Juilliard's Pre-College Division in his teens, earned a diploma in 1970 and a post-graduate diploma in 1972, and is currently on the School's piano faculty). Each brings something of his own personality while avoiding the temptation to treat these works as virtuosic showstoppers. The "Haydn" Variations are particularly appealing; the opening theme is treated with utmost simplicity and directness, each phrase tastefully molded. In the sixth variation, the two pianists draw a warm, orchestral sonority from their keyboards, while in the finale they bring appropriate splendor. Similarly, they show why the F-Minor Sonata for Two Pianos is a masterpiece in its own right, borne out by their attention to structure and carefully judged rubatos.Bartok: Miraculous Mandarin (Complete Ballet); Dance Suite; Hungarian Pictures. Marin Alsop, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. Naxos 8.557433A new recording of Bartok's 1918 ballet score The Miraculous Mandarin performed by Marin Alsop and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra is a reminder of what made this piece so scandalous in its day. While Stravinsky's seminal 1913 ballet The Rite of Spring is better known for having inflamed the musical establishment and sent audiences running for the exits, Bartok arguably surpassed Stravinsky for shock value. The ballet is a sordid tale of a prostitute and a gang of thugs, touching on murder, exploitation, torture, and larceny along the way—enough to keep the Hungarian censors of the day busy (it never got off the ground in Hungary and after a premiere in Cologne in 1926 it was immediately banned).
The music itself includes graphic depictions of three attempted murders, and, like The Rite of Spring, it has a rapid pace and garish colors that don't make for easy dancing (hence its designation of "pantomime"). Alsop's Bournemouth Symphony fully embraces the score's rough edges from the snarls of the trombone to insistent rhythmic patterns and grinding dissonance that evoke the sound of traffic on a busy thoroughfare. Rounding out the disc are spirited versions of the 1923 Dance Suite and the 1931 Hungarian Pictures. Alsop, who received her bachelor's degree from Juilliard in 1977 and her master's in 1978, both in violin performance, has been making a name for Bournemouth while remaining active on the guest conducting circuit as well. Thankfully, Naxos has been busy capturing these performances along the way.Brian Wise is a producer at WNYC radio and writes about music for The New York Times, Time Out New York, Opera News, and other publications.
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