Rarities of Piano Music at Schloss vor Husum Festival 2005

• Booklet languages: German, English
• Time: 79:21
• Release Date: 2006

Review

The Husum Piano Festival is held annually, third week of August, at Husum Castle in what native Theodor Storm called the "grey town on the sea" in North Frisia in Germany. Since 1989, Danish label Danacord has dutifully recorded every festival, and in 2005, Danacord issued a boxed set containing the 16 festivals recorded from 1989 to 2004. Danacord's Rarities of Piano Music at Schloss vor Husum from the 2005 festival demonstrates that, despite wrapping up the past festivals by way of issuing the box, Danacord has not abandoned its commitment to recording the piano festival at Castle Husum. This time it was definitely worth the wait, as this collection is one of the best in the series.

The term "rarities" is, to some degree, flexibly applied to the Schloss vor Husum series; while most of the pieces included are indeed rare works that fall outside the standard repertory, some are not. Mozart's Variations on "Lison dormait," K. 264, is quite common among recordings, though that may be partly as nearly everything by Mozart has been recorded many, many times. Prokofiev's Waltz from the Six Pieces for piano, Op. 102, is not as well known as the ballet from which it comes, but it has been gaining ground. However, one of the most familiar works here -- Gottschalk's "danse de nègres" Bamboula -- is among the highlights of the program in pianist Cecile Licad's performance. Licad has had a chance to refine her interpretation of this piece since she recorded it for Naxos in 2001; her version is scintillating in the up-tempo sections and languidly smoldering in the expressive passages. Licad also takes top honors for her interpretation of a genuine, and highly significant, rarity, the first of Florent Schmitt's luxuriantly impressionistic Ombres Op. 64/1, an early Schmitt work pioneering in the context of its era. Equally exploratory and engaging is Constantin Lifschitz playing the second movement only of George Enescu's Sonata No. 3 Op. 24/3, a task he undertakes with great restraint and sensitivity. It's too bad listeners can't enjoy Lifschitz in the whole sonata, but partly that is the nature of the Schloss vor Husum in that pieces are often excerpted.

Ludmil Angelov is heard in a piece by Bulgarian composer Pancho Vladigerov; equally off the beaten track is Michael Endres' performance of Pierre Sancan's silly but effective Boîte à Musique, which provokes fits of laughter from the live audience. Danacord's recording, as in other entries in the series, is up close and realistic and benefits from the excellent acoustics in the Schloss and the fine instrument in use, although we're not told anything about that (it's a Steinway). Overall, Danacord's Rarities of Piano Music at Schloss vor Husum from the 2005 festival is a highly entertaining program that will make pianophiles daydream about making the pilgrimage to Schloss vor Husum one year. ~ Uncle Dave Lewis , Rovi

Performances

Composer	Title	Time
Nikolay Medtner	Morceaux (P'yesï) (3) for piano, Op. 31 (No. 1. Improvisation)	7:59
Pancho Vladigerov	Prelude for piano, Op. 15/1	5:00
Sergey Prokofiev	Pieces (6) for piano (from the ballet Cinderella), Op. 102 (No. 1. Waltz)	5:54
Florent Schmitt	Ombres, for piano, Op. 64 (No. 1. J'entends dans la lointain)	15:18
Louis Moreau Gottschalk	Bamboula, danse des nègres for piano, Op. 2, D. 13 (RO 20)	6:38
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart	Variations (9) on "Lison dormait," for piano in C major, K. 264 (K. 315d)	14:45
George Enescu	Piano Sonata No. 3 in D major, Op. 24/3 (2. Andantino cantabile)	9:15
Franz Schubert	Work(s) (Dances)	7:01
Pierre Sancan	Boîte à Musique, for piano	1:26
Chick Corea	Spain, for voice & ensemble	4:43
Jerome Kern	All the Things You Are, song (from "Very Warm for May")	1:22

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