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Editorial Reviews

Curious but fascinating, this recording carries with it a breeze from times past. It somehow adds up to more than the sum of its parts; Weissenberg plainly combined technique and charisma. The prospective buyer reading the back cover might conclude that the music was recorded for a broadcast by the Radio della Svizzera Italiana (Swiss Italian Radio), but in fact what is heard here is a live recording with an acceptable level of coughing, ambient noise, and so on. Weissenberg's career really got going after World War II, but his American teacher, Olga Samaroff, was steeped in traditions reaching back well into the prewar era. He had a formidable technique that was often applied to Rachmaninov and other post-Romantics and is abundantly on display here in the Schumann "Symphonic Etudes, Op. 13," which are presented with the five posthumously published variations excised by Schumann on the grounds that they caused the pianist too much stress. But much of the concert was devoted to Bach and Haydn. The "Partita No. 4" of Bach is a strange performance by today's standards, with lots of rubato and phrases shaped as if they were in a Beethoven sonata. It sounds something like Artur Schnabel would have sounded in Bach (which he did record occasionally), and taken on its own terms it does involve the listener after the initial surprise wears off. The Haydn "Piano Sonata in E flat major, Hob. 16/52," is less successful; Weissenberg pushes the tempo from the start and never gives subtle surprises a chance to make their impact. The booklet notes (in Italian and English), consisting of reminiscences of the writer, aren't very helpful, but this is an intriguing historical reissue (despite the relative youth of the recording) shedding light on a major figure whose career has been inadequately documented. James Manheim, All Music Guide

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