Gramophone – September 2019

RECORDING OF THE MONTH

gramophone.co.uk GRAMOPHONESEPTEMBER 201949

F £10andover

M £7.76 to £9.99

B £6.25 to £7.75

S £6.24 and below

(price per disc)

b Compact disc

(number of discs

in set)

Í SACD (Super

Audio CD)

◊ DVD Video

Y Blu-ray

6 LP

D Download only

3 Reissue

1 Historic

T Text(s) included

t translation(s)

included

S Synopsis included

s subtitles included

nla no longer available

aas all available

separately

oas only available

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Editor’s Choice

Martin Cullingford’s pick of the

inest recordings reviewed in

this issue

couldevokethemostprofoundofRumi’s

mystic odes?). Every choice of timbre,

tempo and agogic infl ection seems to

point up the dramatic and musical

connections that hold the entire

selection of Songs together.

Kozhukhin’s pick of Grieg’s Lyric Pieces

is equally inspired. Again we have not just

a randomly varied assembly of pieces but

an over-arching story. Kozhukhin is

responsive not only to the Griegian sound

world but also to the individual character

of each piece, giving due place to fantasy

and a touch of the fairy-tale. Even at third

or fourth hearing, new expressive turns and

visionary interpretative choices emerge.

Listen out for the fractional delays in the

dancelike numbers, for example, and see if

they don’t bring a smile to your face.

Andsnes(EMI/Warner,4/02)makesfor
an interesting comparison here, in that
the Norwegian has a somehow more solid,
more central conception of this repertoire,
but not necessarily a more riveting one.
Take, for instance, the Waltz, Op 12
No 2, where Kozhukhin is the more
unpredictably capricious. These are
performances worthy of a place on the
shelves beside the classic Gilels (DG).
From the ‘once upon a time’ opening of the
‘Arietta’ to the subtly rhetorical ‘Elegy’,
with its constant questioning intonations,
to the almost frenzied jubilation of
‘Wedding Day at Troldhaugen’, this is
an extraordinary journey, made all the
more enjoyable by top-class recording
quality and Nigel Simeone’s delightful
PHOTOGRAPHY: booklet essay.

VERONICA NEO, MARCO BORGGREVE

KEY TO SYMBOLS

Creative and poetic pianism: Denis Kozhukhin’s exploratory musicality illuminates the music of Grieg and Mendelssohn