Lepidopterology

[Todd]

Youri Egorov starts off with a deep key, big sonority intro and not only doesn't deviate from that as the dances begin, he doubles down.  The Pomposo waltz blows the listener's socks right off.  Digital nimbleness and dynamic nuance beguile.  Egorov marries a sense of freedom with immaculate preparation.  Some of the playing veers dangerously close to sounding too hard, but part of that is down to the recording.  As with Luisada, this is geared toward the concert hall, but with less (wholesome and delectable) idiosyncrasy.  A tier.

[Todd]

Michaël Levinas starts off with an extremely slow opening movement, stretching the piece out with an equal weight on spaces between notes in an approach rare in this work.  His Eusebius is a dreamer of gentle, dreamy dreams.  The seventh movement, Semplice, melts time and entrances the listener with exquisite aural beauty.  Levinas' Florestan, in contrast, can blast out lower registers with organ-like heft, something also found in Levinas' Bach, and pierce the listener's ears with tart upper registers.  Rhythm throughout is fluid and appropriate to each piece, but this not a dance inspired work so much as romantic text filtered through Schumann and transformed into a multimovement fantasy.  The way Levinas rushes some of the playing in the finale, the pronounced rubato, the fickle mood swings, the bright tone, and the extended coda, all combine to create an ending that almost approximates waking happily from a sunny dream.  A supremely fine version.  S tier.

[Todd]

The first of three recordings taken from complete sets, Dana Ciocarlie, playing on a bright Yamaha, delivers a measured intro and first waltz, and she plays a weighty, dark-hued Pomposo waltz.  So far, so nice.  Nicer yet is when she really brings the Eusebius dreaminess to the gentler pieces, whereas some other takes sound punchier throughout.  Her rhythmic sense is rock solid, and her p and pp playing shines.  The Vivo waltz gently rocks back and forth, again with the Eusebius playing the highlight.  Ms Ciocarlie's complete set remains a sleeper set, and this recording demonstrates that.  A tier.

[Todd]

In the second of three complete set recordings, Eric le Sage launches his take with a subdued and beautiful intro and first waltz and then launches into a big, bold second waltz.  So, basically, he adopts the tried and true and successful Eusebius/Florestan split personality from the outset.  The path to ensured success succeeds.  He mixes up dynamic contrasts very nicely, with the playing only rarely becoming ever so slightly hard.  The softer music, though, sounds affecting and beautiful and fairly clear as le Sage doesn't rely overly much on the sustain to blur the playing.  In the more extroverted passages, he maintains a romantically classical, or classically restrained romanticism – take your pick – that prevents the music from sounding opaque or heavy.  It had been a good long while since I last listened to this take, and I will say that it comes off better than memory suggested it would.  The lesson: never throw out old recordings.  (Of course, it's ripped and resides on an HDD, and I am too lazy to even delete files, so that old rule doesn't really even apply in the here and now.)  B tier.

[Todd]

In the last of the complete set recordings, Florian Uhlig starts with a slow, subdued intro and first waltz, then turns up the wick.  There's a nice fluidity to his playing in the second waltz, though the rhythm sounds compromised a bit to achieve it.  The Pomposo waltz has punch.  While Uhlig can and does deliver good Eusebius playing, he is relatively better at the Florestan music.  As the piece progresses, though, the playing, while technically polished, seems too hemmed in, too serious, too studious, sometimes too cool.  C tier.