A month or two ago, I picked up David Greilsammer’s Naïve recording of two Mozart piano concertos and was most impressed. Here’s a young-ish pianist – he’s 35, though the recording is a few years old – who plays with distinct style and made me listen to the old works with fresh ears, as it were. He plays with great clarity, beauty, and, above all, delicacy. He’s no barn-storming virtuoso, or at least not in Mozart. I decided to hear him play something else, and this disc of two rarities and one war horse fit the bill.
I’d never read of, let alone heard, Alexandre Tansman until I found this disc. His second piano concerto, from 1927, in its world premiere recording, opens the disc. It’s very much of its time and place, with two influences looming quite large: Gershwin and Ravel. There are also a few hints of jazz, more than a few dashes of Prokofiev, and lush, inventive orchestral accompaniment. Greilsammer plays the music quite well, displaying the traits I mentioned earlier. There are no thundering crescendos, no dizzying flashes of brilliance. Instead, there is control, precision, and subtle expression when playing diminuendo. If the work doesn’t match up to Ravel qualitatively, it’s quite good nonetheless, and Greilsammer shows his stuff.
Nadia Boulanger’s 1912 Fantaise for Piano and Orchestra follows. This live recording also appears to be a world premier recording. The work is darker, richer, and heavier to open, with strains of late 19th Century romanticism permeating the music. It’s hard not to hear the influence of César Franck, and the orchestration sounds a bit dense, but the work has an immediate appeal somewhat lacking in the Tansman. The piano part is not especially dazzling and is rather formal, which may make sense given the composer. Again, Greilsammer shows his stuff throughout, and here he generates some heat and volume when needed.
The disc closes with
Rhapsody in Blue. Greilsammer plays in more overtly virtuosic fashion here, as suits the piece, and he gracefully backs off to give the limelight to other soloists where appropriate. The whole thing works quite well, I must say. (Okay, this isn’t new for me, but the other works sure are.)
So Mr Greilsammer seems like the real deal. I see that he has another Mozart disc coming out, on Sony, this month, as well as some other discs. I have more to hear. Based on what I’ve heard so far, I do hope I get to hear him in Schubert and Debussy, and even Rachmaninov and Ligeti.
Steven Sloane and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France lend superb support for Mr Greilsammer, and sound is excellent throughout.
