Extending Handel’s frontiers

Press, 7 May 1984, Page 10

Extending Handel’s frontiers

Classical rccorck review

ALLAN FRANCIS

HANDEL. The Keyboard Suites Nos. 1-16 played by Sviatoslav Richter and Andrei Gavrilov, pianos. WORLD RECORDS WI 5297-4. Rightly or otherwise, I have long suspected that Richter is a lazy pianist (overseas critics euphemistically call him “cautious”), and evidence to support this contention is apparent in his recordings of Mozart or Debussy. Handel does not come within this unfortunate category so one can sit back and enjoy the combined efforts of the young Gavrilov (27) and the older Richter (67) playing, in near perfect harmony, works that have long been pushed into the background. The reason for this neglect appears to be the omnipotence of Bach’s Keyboard Suites, which have overshadowed all his contemporaries’ efforts in the field!

This remarkable project has pushed out the frontiers of Handel’s Keyboard Suites (better known as his Harpsichord Suites), at least as far as the gramophone catalogue is concerned. Only eight suites have ever been recorded before so it comes as something of a delightful bonus to have them all available at last.

What makes it all so much better is the obvious aura of pleasure coming from the pianists, the vitality of youth lifting the sometimes dour quality of the older player.

Despite this essential shot in the arm, Gavrilov plays the slower movements at an extremely studied pace, slow enough to almost lose his way. Yet the duo attains an indefinable magic that never palls throughout the long journey. Key points of interest must rest with the nimble moments in the fast sections, plus the immaculate attention to detail. It is difficult to distinguish who is playing when or where, such is the closeness of the partnership. Richter hints at the greatness of his former days in the Suites 5 and 12, with the familiar strains of “The Harmonious Blacksmith” played down in ithe former. Disciples of the Harnoncourt league will possibly be impatient with twentieth century “tamperings” but frankly I found much more here to my liking without feeling the need to apologise to harpsichord purists. BEETHOVEN. The Early Quartets Op. 18 Nos. 1-6 played by the Alban Berg Quartet. WORLD RECORDS WI 5183-3. After experiencing the Middle Quartets with some relish, I look forward eagerly to the next phase, curiously enough what should have been the first step in the venture, the Early Quartets. The Viennese players adopt a seriously dedicated view towards the quartets;

their speeds are unusually fast by general standards and certainly so when compared with the broad sweep of the Italian Quartet or the Cleveland Quartet in the same works. This policy lends some vigour to the image of Beethoven at 30; there is vitality and tension that the Italian Quartet lack. However, this again depends entirely on the type of interpretation one seeks. The Alban Berg have come into being in difficult times and doubtless their history colours their attitude. What the Alban Berg may miss with relaxed maturity they amply compensate for in crisply articulated readings; their detailed accounts have none of the slurred attention to repeats nor the over-sweet content of the American group. No doubt the Alban Berg Quartet have good reasons for doing these works in this order. It now remains for the last package to complete the entire edition in what promises to be the definitive version. SYMANOWSKL Orchestral Works including Concert Overture, Symphonies 2 to 4 (Symphony Concertante and Song of the Night), played by the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra under various conductors. WORLD RECORDS WI 5202-3. After hearing these pieces, one wonders just

what is typical Polish composition when there is sb much Richard Strauss and ■Reger in Symanowski. The “Concert Overture” is but an exercise in the Straussian idiom, the Symphony Number 2 is a hybrid composition of mixed form and the 3rd and 4th are exotic blooms of extravagantly lush proportions. Here one glimpses unmistakeable signs of Scriabin. This could never be anything but twentieth century composition, though lacking the charm and appeal of either Ravel or Saint-Saens. Perhaps the unfamiliarity of the music may have been off-putting but I feel it needs more time and patience than I was prepared to give in order to get to a balanced judgment.