Description
After diversions into other fields, including the music of her namesake, pianist Sonya Bach (Korean: ì??ë? ë°?í) has emerged with a specialty one might expect from a student of Lazar Berman: she is a talented performer in Russian virtuoso repertory. Mussorgsky’s music is better known in orchestral renderings than in keyboard versions, but to pull off a convincing recital for keyboard is difficult. Bach’s is superb. She opens with an arrangement of the orchestral Night on Bald Mountain by Konstantin Chernov, dating from around 1902; the work was certainly heard this way prior to recordings (and it has been recorded as well before Bach’s reading). It sets the large dimensions of Bach’s performance, with a broad, gloomy witches’ sabbath resolving to a melodic finale inaugurated by convincing church bells. For many listeners, the highlight will be the presence of four of Mussorgsky’s rather sparse output of short piano pieces. Sample the minimalistic, two-line Meditation: Album Leaf, which is pure Mussorgsky in its total tonal independence, and wonder why this work is not included on recitals more often. The grand finale is Pictures at an Exhibition, also identified in the booklet as being an arrangement by Chernov, but this seems to be a mistake; what is heard is Mussorgsky’s piano original. It is a superb performance, both imposing and wonderfully detailed in smaller sections like the “Tuilleries.” With Rubicon’s engineering from a Seoul studio catching all the many shades of Bach’s performances, this is an unusually satisfying Mussorgsky release. ~ James Manheim
