Historic Russian Archives / Lazar Berman Edition

Brilliant Classics' seven-CD portrait of Lazar Berman, taken live from Russian archive performances, 1950-87, may have you blowing hot and cold but it is a souvenir of a phenomenal pianist. True, there are moments when you feel mugged, left bruised and battered in the wake of Berman's power-house, all-gunsblazing virtuosity, but it is reassuring to find that his legendary physical bravura could be complemented by a touching inner warmth and poetry. Uninhibited when freed in his native Russia from Western notions of musical propriety, Berman's Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert may lack the pinpoint definition of other, more overtly sophisticated pianists, but his leisurely unfolding of, say, the Schubert B fist Sonata is wistful and heartfelt, a far cry from his later, more cautious and unilluminating EMI studio remake. Berman's way with Liszt's Nuages gris, with the dark-hued romanticism of the composer's final years, is no less a reminder that he hardly needed shoals of notes to keep him happy; that his was a more multi-faceted talent than current critical estimates allow. All the same, it is when one gleefully turns to what I can only describe as the "blitzkrieg" items that one is made to understand the awe in which Berman was held by even his greatest compatriots. You will need to avoid his turbulent and rough-shod way with Ravel's Ondine (Berman once told me he avoided "Scarbo", as it was "a perfect gibet for the pianist") where the allpervading opening figure and syncopation emerge as a confused shake rather than a shimmer of harmony, a near-defiant insult to lovers of a more fastidious french pianism. More surprisingly, B minor Sonatas is overwhelming. Yet just when you have recovered from Berman bear-hug embrace you remember how memorably he could scale down his vast resources to give us Haydn of a concentrated vitality and charm, and recreates in his mind, heart and fingers at any given time. And caught, as it were, on the wing, his playing was of such poetic transparency that it prompted critics and pianists (most notably Alfred Brendel) to light to darker imaginings.

Gramophone (Oct. 2006)

CD 1

FRANZ LISZT:

Sonata "Apres une lecture de Dante"
(from Années de Pélerinage, II: Italie)
Rec.: 22-11-1971
Mephisto Waltz No.1
Rec.: 6-1-1967
Études d'execution transcendante (selection):
Prelude
Rec.: 26-4-1956
Paysage
Rec.: 26-4-1956
Feux follets
Rec.: 26-4-1956
Vision
Rec.: 18-11-1950
Appassionata in F minor
Rec.: 26-4-1956
Harmonies du soir
Rec.: 22-10-1953
Chasse-neige
Rec.: 22-10-1953
Rhapsodie Espagnole
Rec.: 3-3-1952


CD 2

FRANZ LISZT:

Années de Pélerinage Βοοκ 1: Switzerland (selection)
Chappelle de Guillaume Tell
Au lac de Wallenstadt
Vallée d'Obermann
Le Mal du Pays
Les Cloches de Geneve
Rec.: 25-5-1972
Piano Concerto No.1 in E flat major:
1. Allegro maestoso
2. Quasi adagio-Allegretto vivace-Allegro animato
3. Allegro marziale animato
Philharmonic Youth Orchestra Moscow
Kirill Kondrashin, conductor
Rec.: 23-2-1952


CD 3

FRANZ LISZT:
Sonata in B minor
Rec.: 1955

MAURICE RAVEL:
Ondine (from Gaspard de la Nuit)
Rec.: 26-4-1956

CLAUDE DEBUSSY:
Etude "Pour les huit doigts"
Rec.: 26-4-1956

MANUEL DE FALLA:
Ritual Fire Dance
Rec.: 30-1-1983

ALEXANDER SCRIABIN:
Piano Sonata No.4:
I. Andante
II. Prestissimo volando
Rec.: 16-2-1962
Fantasy in B minor, Op.28
Rec.: 18-11-1950
Etude in B flat minor, Op.8 No.11
Rec.: 24-2-1980

MURAD KAZHLAEV:
Three Preludes
Rec.: 3-1-1959


CD 4

SERGEY PROKOFIEV:

Toccata, Op. 11
Rec.: 26-4-1956
Romeo & Juliet (selection from the ballet):
Morning Dance (the street awakens)
The arrival of the guests (Menuetto)
Mercutio
Montechhi e Capuletti (Dance of the knights)
Romeo & Juliet before parting
Rec.: 22-11-1971
Piano Sonata No.8 in B flat major, Op.84:
1. Andante moderato
2. Andante sognando
3. Vivace
Rec.: 24-2-1980
Violin Sonata No.2 in D major, Op.94a:
1. Moderato
2. Scherzo
3. Andante
4. Allegro con brio
Pavel Berman, violin
Rec.: 16-1-1987


CD 5

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN:
Piano Sonata in C sharp minor Op.27 No.2 "Moonlight":
1. Adagio
2. Allegretto
3. Presto agitato
Rec.: 24-2-1980
Piano Sonata in F minor Op.57 "Appassionata":
1. Allegro assai
2. Andante con moto
3. Allegro ma non troppo
Rec.: 16-2-1962

FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN:
Polonaise in A flat major Op.53 "Heroic"
Rec.: 22-10-1953
Étude in A minor Op.10 No.2
Étude in A flat major Op.10 No.10
Étude in A minor Op.25 No.4
Étude in D flat major Op.25 No.8
Étude in B minor Op.25 No.10
Étude in A minor Op.25 No.11
Rec.: 6-6-1950

PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY:
Scherzo from Symphony No.6 "Pathétique" (Arr. Samuel Feinberg)
Rec.: 6-6-1950


CD 6

DOMENICO SCARLATTI:
Sonata in D minor
Rec.: 16-2-1962

MUZIO CLEMENTI:
Piano Sonata in B minor Op.40 No.2:
1. Molto adagio e sostenuto - Allegro con fuoco
2. Largo, mesto e patetico - Allegro
Rec.: 23-4-1968

JOSEPH HAYDN:
Piano Sonata in G major Hob. XVI/27:
1. Allegro con brio
2. Menuetto
3. Finale, presto
Rec.: 10-11-1975

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART:
Rondo in A minor KV 511
Rec.: 10-11-1975

FRANZ LISZT:
Sonetto del Petrarca No.2
Nuages gris
Rec.: 26-5-1972

GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL:
Aria, from Dettinger Te Deum, for violin & piano
Pavel Berman, violin.
Rec.: 16-1-1987


CD 7

FRANZ SCHUBERT:

Piano Sonata in B flat major, D.960:
I. Molto moderato
II. Andante sostenuto
III. Scherzo, allegro vivace con delicatezza
IV. Allegro ma non troppo
Rec.: 11-6-1980
Song transcriptions by FRANZ LISZT:
Der Leiermann
Täuschung
Gretchen am Spinnrad'
Die junge Nonne
Ave Maria
Erlkönig
Rec.: 11-6-1981


LAZAR BERMAN, piano