Gramophone – September 2019

48 GRAMOPHONE SEPTEMBER 2019 gramophone.co.uk

RECORDINGOF THE MONTH

Michelle Assay is thrilled to hear Denis Kozhukhin bring creative and imaginative

insights to familiar miniatures by Mendelssohn and Grieg

‘Kozhukhin’schoiceof

SongswithoutWordsis

exquisite–it’sasthough

hehasdevisedasecretneo-

Schubertiansong-cycle’

Grieg. Mendelssohn

Grieg Lyric Pieces: Op 12 – No 1, Arietta; No 2, Waltz;

No 4, Elves’ Dance; Op 38 – No 4, Dance; No 6, Elegy;

Op 43 – No 1, Butterly; No 4, Little Bird; No 6, To

Spring; Elegy, Op 47 No 7; Op 54 – No 3, March of the

Trolls; No 4, Notturno; No 5, Scherzo; Brooklet,

Op 62 No 4; Wedding Day at Troldhaugen, Op 65

No 6 Mendelssohn Songs without Words: Op 19 –

Nos 1, 2, 3 & 5; Op 30 – Nos 2 & 6; Op 38 – Nos 2 & 6;

Op 62 No 3; Op 67 – Nos 2 & 4; Op 102 No 3

Denis Kozhukhin pf

Pentatone F Í PTC5186 754 (66’ • DDD/DSD)

Once in a while a piano recording comes

along that really plucks at the heart-

strings. Denis Kozhukhin’s compilation

of miniatures by Mendelssohn and Grieg

is one such. First prize-winner at the 2010

Queen Elisabeth Competition and third

prize-winner in 2006 at Leeds, the

Russian has already proved – most

memorably in his concerto debut

recording of Grieg and Tchaikovsky

(5/16) – that he has the ability to

illuminate familiar, over-played pieces

with his imaginative musicality.

Now, in deceptively straightforward

repertoire, we get a subtler but if

anything even more delicious taste

of his creative and poetic pianism.

As Harriet Smith has put it, if

listened to en bloc, there can be

a danger of aural toothache with

Mendelssohn’s Songs without Words,

even when delivered by the fi nest

hands. Well, either I have developed

a terribly sweet tooth or else

Kozhukhin is even fi ner than his

rivals, because I only wish he had

recorded the whole lot, so that

I could savour them all in one

continuous binge. Kozhukhin

has converted even a slight

Mendelssohn-sceptic like me

(in particular when it comes to

these miniatures) not just to yield

to them as a listener but to want to take

them straight to the piano and play them

through. He brings to the table a perfect

balance between spontaneity and control,

teamed with infi nite variety of touch

and timbre. Every phrase is imbued

with sensitivity and luminous beauty.

Even when the textures are apparently

similar (as, say, in the fi rst two items on

the disc), he succeeds in placing each piece

in its own unique expressive world and

sonic landscape.

I don’t think I’ve ever heard so much

Schubert in Mendelssohn’s Songs. In the

dreamiest numbers, such as the famous

‘Venetianisches Gondellied’, Kozhukhin

keeps a more natural momentum even

than, say, Javier Perianes (subject of HS’s

glowing review: Harmonia Mundi, 12/14),

avoiding sentimentality but without ever

compromising the mood of reverie.

Unlike Perahia (Sony Classical, 3/00) –

few fi ner hands than his, you would think –

Kozhukhin doesn’t rush in the interests of

agitation. Compare his haunting take on

Op 30 No 2, where every Schubertian turn

is savoured and every phrase allowed to

be sung through. And if Barenboim’s

enthralling account of this Song (DG)

seems to come straight out of the

feverish world of ‘Erlkönig’,

Kozhukhin’s has the subtler allure

and fatalism of the fi rst of Schubert’s

late Three Pieces, D946.

It’s not just the interpretations

but also Kozhukhin’s choice of

Songs that is exquisite. It’s as though

he has devised an overall narrative –

a secret neo-Schubertian song-cycle,

perhaps. How profoundly touching,

for instance, to place the wandering

and nostalgic Op 67 No 2 right after

the funeral-march Op 62 No 3.

And with the brilliant ‘Spinnerlied’

and fi nally the deceptively naive

‘Kinderstück’, Kozhukhin as it were

adds three dots to the fi nality of

death: death as our ‘wedding with

eternity’ (who would have thought

Denis Kozhukhin creates unique expressive sound worlds that these simple, intimate pieces