Brahms Intermezzi -- Volodos vs, Gould

[Larry Kart]

I got the Volodos after a piano maven on rec.musical.classical.recpordings extolled it as the best recording of these works ever. Volodos, who of course has fantastic chops in terms of speed, also is great with differentiation of touch, and his versions, which are slow and meditative, flow like molassees -- mostly in the good sense of that sort of flow. On the down side, one might feel that the meditativeness he's cleary going for is somewhat undercut at times by an air of calculation -- to figure out and make the kind of micro-adjustments of touch and tone that Volodos comes up with doesn't always leave one with a sense of spontaneity. Remarkable playing nonetheless, both in terms of conception and execution.

 

Gould's versions I used to own and later on got rid of (IIRC I found them too slow and finicky) even though he said that they were the best recordings he'd ever made of anything, adding that they revealed him to be the total romantic that he'd always claimed to be.  Indeed they are very romantic and not only slow and deeply meditative but also, so to seems to me, quite spontaneously so. Gould doesn't shade things quite as much or as delicately as Volodos, but he does so a good deal, and of course his digital control is out of sight. Still, it's Gould's of air spontaneity that is most attractive -- one feels that each crux (so to speak) in these pieces has just been happened upon by Gould for the first time, and he responds accordingly. This BTW fits Gould's statement that he didn't practice the Brahms Ballades (also on this two-CD set) before recording them, even though they're known to be finger-busters, but just read through the scores enough to get them in his head.

In any case, I'm happy to have both Volodos and Gould now; they don't contradict each other. Designated for the trash -- my old Gieseking Angel LPs. Why those sleepy, dull recordings were ever well regarded escapes me.

 

[HutchFan]

Brahms' late piano pieces are so wonderful -- as if in old age he can finally let down his guard and reveal something immensely personal.

I've never much warmed to Gould's Brahms.  But I should pull the LP off the shelf and give it another listen.  ... I've never heard the Volodos disc.

My current faves in this repertoire are Peter Rösel and Dmitri Alexeev.