Latest / The Piano Maven with Jed Distler / Remembering Stephen Kovacevich - Ten Essential Recordings

Transcript

Remembering Stephen Kovacevich - Ten Essential Recordings · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

0:08
This is Jed Disler, and welcome to The Piano
0:11
Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano recordings.
0:15
Consider taking out a paid subscription to The
0:18
Piano Maven, and you can find a link to do so
0:21
on my Substack page, and I've posted a link to
0:25
this page in our episode description. Paid subscribers
0:30
get a free recording at the beginning of each
0:33
month, and your subscription will help keep this
0:37
podcast alive and afloat. We just lost the pianist
0:42
Stephen Kovacevic recently. He passed away October
0:47
27th at the age of 86. When the news came through
0:51
about his passing, numerous tributes started
0:55
to appear on social media mainly from his colleagues
1:00
it seemed all who talked about stephen kovatchevich
1:04
and his outstanding musicianship and his artistic
1:07
integrity and his personal warmth And this is
1:11
a musician who miraculously prevailed through
1:15
some serious health challenges in his later years,
1:19
including a serious stroke from which he did
1:22
recover and became able to play again. I don't
1:27
need to go into his biography, which you can
1:29
easily access elsewhere online, but basically
1:33
he was born in... California in 1940. And when
1:39
he was 18, he had a scholarship to go to London
1:43
to study with Myra Hess. And he remained in London
1:47
as a resident for the rest of his life. After
1:52
he worked with Myra Hess, he made a successful
1:54
London debut playing Beethoven's Diabelli Variations
1:59
at Wigmore Hall, and this is a work with which
2:03
he was closely associated throughout his career.
2:06
Although Stephen probably was best known for
2:09
his interpretations of the core Austro -German
2:14
repertoire in the works of Brahms and Schubert
2:17
and especially Beethoven. He did play a wide
2:21
range of music. His close artistic and personal
2:25
association with Martha Argerich yielded many
2:29
memorable collaborations that included works
2:33
of Rachmaninoff and Bartok, for example. But
2:37
more importantly for our purposes, Stephen Kovacevic
2:41
left behind a large discography. He started out
2:46
recording for the EMI label in the 1960s, for
2:50
whom he did, I think, two, perhaps three LPs
2:54
for that label in the 60s. I can't remember exactly
2:58
now. These have not been reissued on CD, so far
3:02
as I know. Then in the late 1960s, Stephen decamped
3:08
over to the Phillips label, which is now Decca.
3:12
And, oh, a few years ago, Decca brought out this
3:16
splendid box set of Stephen's complete Phillips
3:20
recordings, and I am positive that this box set
3:24
is out of print. Stephen eventually returned
3:28
to EMI, for whom he set down a... complete Beethoven
3:33
sonata cycle. He also recorded the two Brahms
3:37
concertos, some sonatas by Schubert, and other
3:41
things. And for the Onyx label, he remade the
3:46
Diabelli variations, and that's quite a marvelous
3:49
recording. He was a mentor and advisor to many
3:54
generations of pianists, and he gave marvelous
3:58
masterclasses, by the way. I only met Stephen
4:03
Kovacevic on one occasion, and that was when
4:07
we were both guests for dinner at a mutual friend's
4:11
house. And basically the whole time I was there,
4:14
I was asking him questions about Myra Hess and
4:19
about the musicians he worked with in his formative
4:22
years and about... musical life in London in
4:26
the 60s and 70s. You know, when you meet somebody
4:29
of that stature, you don't talk about yourself.
4:32
You just ask questions and listen. But at a certain
4:36
point, I think I offended him. In fact, I know
4:40
I offended him. Because when the topic of the
4:44
pianist Katya Unyatishvili came up, I... couldn't
4:49
help but let my mouth run off about how vulgar
4:53
and shallow her music -making was. And I even
4:57
ranted about her infamous recording of Pictures
5:01
and Exhibition of Mussorgsky, where there's a
5:03
blatant misreading that should have been caught,
5:07
but of course it was published and it's there
5:09
forever. Anyway, I was ranting about her, and
5:13
then Stephen interrupted me and said, she was
5:16
my student. I swallowed a little bit of crow,
5:21
I admit, but basically I stood my ground. But
5:25
I think that took me down a peg or two in Stephen's
5:29
estimation. I think he also got offended, as
5:33
many people do, when I wound up singing my parody
5:37
of Send in the Clowns that has lyrics about a
5:40
famous conductor who had this infamous reputation.
5:45
I'm not going to go into detail. But I've learned
5:48
that I cannot sing that parody for certain people.
5:51
Anyway, Stephen was a pianist who I greatly admired
5:56
and respected. And I imagine that Warner Classics
6:01
is eventually going to do a box set encompassing
6:05
his complete EMI recordings, which hopefully
6:09
will include... a lot of items that haven't been
6:12
available for years, like those discs from the
6:16
1960s I was talking about, and also that Beethoven
6:20
concerto cycle that came out on Classics for
6:23
Pleasure, where Stephen Kowalczewicz is conducting
6:27
from the piano. That's been out of print for
6:29
a long time. So I've put a rather arbitrary list
6:35
together of 10 recordings that... I think will
6:39
give you a sense of Stephen Kovacevic and his
6:43
musicianship and his repertoire range. And if
6:46
you don't know his work already, or if you're
6:50
just basically familiar with his playing, I think
6:53
this list will probably give you a big head start.
6:57
So let's begin. Recommendation number one. Although
7:02
Stephen Kovacevic wasn't... really known for
7:05
playing Chopin. He did make a terrific Chopin
7:09
disc for Phillips that's highlighted by a brooding
7:13
yet smartly structured and well -paced reading
7:18
of the Polonaise fantasy. I think this whole
7:21
disc is definitely one to recommend. Recommendation
7:26
number two. Stephen Kovacevic recorded the Brahms
7:30
-Hendel variations twice, once for Phillips and
7:34
then later on for EMI. If you can find the EMI
7:39
version, grab it, because it's been out of print
7:43
for a while. I think it's one of the most gratifying
7:46
versions of this work on disc. The tempo relationships
7:50
are tightly yet not rigidly unified, and the
7:55
cumulative momentum is quite intense. Everything
7:58
just leads into this blazingly clear final fugue.
8:03
I return to this recording of the Handel variations
8:06
time and again with great pleasure. Recommendation
8:10
number three. The composer Richard Rodney Bennett
8:14
wrote and dedicated his 1968 piano concerto to
8:20
Stephen Kovacevic, who gave its premiere. And
8:23
he also made what I think is still its only recording.
8:27
And this is a work that reflects the composer's
8:31
12 -tone style that pretty much dominated throughout
8:34
his career, except toward the end when Richard
8:38
Rodney Bennett embraced tonality in his concert
8:41
music. He always wrote tonal film scores, of
8:45
course. This concerto has a lot of meat and grit
8:49
and substance to it. It's brilliantly scored
8:52
and the piano writing is very effective. I think
8:56
this is a work that pianists ought to be investigating
9:00
again. Anyway, this world premiere recording
9:03
with Alexander Gibson conducting. as I said,
9:07
remains the only recording of the Richard Rodney
9:10
Bennett Concerto and Stephen Kovacevic's on scintillating
9:15
form. So that's my third recommendation. My fourth
9:19
recommendation is music of Bartok while we are
9:24
still in the 20th century. He played Bartok with
9:29
great passion and authority. Now, I'm a little
9:32
bit on the fence because As much as I admired
9:37
his recording of the three Bartok concertos conducted
9:40
by Colin Davis, which really hold their own today,
9:45
these recordings basically were superseded by
9:48
those of Zoltan Kocsis, which were also on Phillips.
9:52
So I'm going to recommend instead Stephen Kovacevic
9:57
in solo Bartok. a wonderful recording that he
10:02
made of the Out of Door Suite in 1969. And I
10:06
think the pianist truly understands the music's
10:10
lyricism, as well as the obsessive driving power
10:14
and that final movement, the chase. This is one
10:18
of my favorite solo piano works of Bartok, and
10:22
I think that Stephen Kovacevic's recording is
10:25
still a reference version in many respects. Recommendation
10:30
number five. We have to talk about his partnership,
10:34
both artistic and personal, with Martha Argerich,
10:39
who is the mother of his daughter Stephanie,
10:42
who is a filmmaker. Of these two pianists' collaborations,
10:48
it's really hard to choose just one. But I'm
10:51
going to pick their Phillips recording of Debussy's
10:55
Suite for Two Pianos en Blanc et Noir, mainly
10:59
because Stephen Kovacevic recorded relatively
11:03
little French music, and also because this performance
11:07
is a model of two piano synchronicity and precision
11:12
and transparency. I like this performance very
11:15
much. Recommendation number six is actually a
11:19
video recommendation because there is no audio
11:23
only recording of this pianist Lang Schumann's
11:27
Kindersehnen, but there are several video versions
11:31
available. most notably the one from his live
11:35
Verbier Festival concert of July 28, 2009. It's
11:41
a beautiful performance that runs the gamut from
11:44
tender lyricism to controlled vehemence, and
11:49
you really get a sense of how all 13 individual
11:52
pieces in Kinderzenen relate to one another.
11:56
Recommendation number seven. of the three mozart
12:00
concertos that stephen recorded for the phillips
12:04
label my favorite is probably his recording of
12:08
the c major concerto number twenty one four sixty
12:12
seven and this is big mozart playing with stylish
12:16
dynamic contrasts cadenzas that just let rip
12:21
And there's an Andante that may not be the most
12:24
emotionally engaging on planet Earth. It's a
12:28
bit cool for some tastes, I would admit. But
12:31
behind the understatement, one can hear subtle
12:34
nuances of touch, but you kind of have to look
12:38
for them. But I like this recording, and I was
12:41
happy to revisit it, and I think it belongs on
12:44
this list. Recommendation number eight. schubert's
12:49
piano sonata number twenty one in b flat nine
12:53
sixty this is a piece that stephen was long associated
12:59
with and he played it in his final concert if
13:03
i'm not mistaken while he captures the music's
13:07
long -lined serenity he doesn't tiptoe around
13:12
its urgency and sense of disquiet now Stephen
13:16
Kovacevic made two commercial recordings of this
13:20
work, one in 1982 for Hyperion, and again in
13:26
1994, this time for EMI. And there's also a beautiful
13:32
performance recorded in Wigmore Hall in 2020
13:36
during the lockdown, and you can find that on
13:39
YouTube. I have never decided which one of the
13:44
two studio audio recordings I prefer, the Hyperion
13:48
or the EMI. I go back and forth between them,
13:51
and I'm totally indecisive. I think both are
13:54
equally commanding, so I'm just going to leave
13:57
it at that. So whichever one you find, or if
14:01
you want both, great. Recommendation number nine.
14:05
This pianist and the Beethoven sonatas were together
14:10
from the very beginning. And in Stephen's interpretation
14:14
of the final sonata in C minor, opus 111, I like
14:20
both the otherworldly aura and feeling of long
14:24
lines in the arietta, as well as that coiled
14:28
vehemence that he brings to the first movement.
14:32
He recorded Op. 111 for Phillips, which is a
14:35
very fine version, but the recording that's in
14:39
the EMI box set that contains the complete Beethoven
14:44
sonatas issued by EMI was actually a remake that
14:48
was done especially for the box set in 2003.
14:52
When the sonatas were first being issued individually
14:55
on EMI, on individual discs, the recording...
15:01
of Opus 111 on the single disc was actually a
15:05
1992 recording coupled with the Opus 90 and Opus
15:10
101 sonatas recorded also in 1992. And the 1992
15:18
Opus 90 and Opus 101 are in the complete cycle.
15:23
But like I said, Stephen decided to redo Opus
15:28
111 for the complete cycle. So this earlier 1992
15:32
Opus 111 was only available on that individual
15:36
disc, which of course went out of print, and
15:40
it's long fallen between the cracks. So this
15:43
is kind of a discographical curiosity. I did
15:48
ask Stephen about it, and he said that he preferred
15:51
the 2003 remake, both musically and sonically.
15:56
But I am mentioning the 1992 Opus 111 because
16:00
maybe it's a little more technically incisive
16:04
in certain parts. And because it's a relative
16:07
rarity, if you come across it, don't hesitate.
16:11
Pick it up because this is the Opus 111 that
16:15
got away, so to speak. And for recommendation
16:20
number 10, I think you know what's coming. Beethoven's
16:26
Diabelli Variations, but not the 1969 Phillips
16:30
recording that got lots of attention and acclaim.
16:35
I like this recording, but I think it's a tad
16:37
cerebral and detached. I much prefer the remake
16:43
that he did in 2007. It may have been 2008. I
16:48
can't remember because I don't have the physical
16:50
disc in front of me at the moment, but it's from
16:53
around that time. And I'm sure listeners will
16:57
chime in and correct me. But what's important
17:00
is that this recording really gives us both the
17:04
quintessential Beethoven and the quintessential
17:08
Stephen Kovacevic. And I think that he brings
17:12
much more color and dynamic variety and character
17:16
to this music in this recording than in the earlier
17:19
version. And furthermore, he's not... afraid
17:23
to take both technical and musical risks to achieve
17:27
maximum expressive impact such as like a slightly
17:32
russian crescendo here or slamming down the sustained
17:36
pedal there or giving his hands absolutely no
17:40
quarter in pursuit of you know the relentless
17:45
rhythmic drive and variation twenty eight or
17:48
how he elides the final bar of Variation 25 right
17:55
into Variation 26's opening. I mean, this is
17:59
a deeply felt and highly thought out and totally
18:04
fulfilling performance of the Diabeles. that's
18:07
stylistically on the money, emotionally committed,
18:11
and courageous in every way. It is a studio recording,
18:16
but it does come off like a real performance.
18:19
And when I wrote my gramophone collection survey
18:23
about the Diabelli variations nearly 20 years
18:27
ago, I think, the Stephen Kovacevic remake was
18:31
my top recommendation. And believe it or not,
18:36
Stephen was aware of that article, and he did
18:39
tell me that he appreciated my kind words. But
18:43
I wasn't being kind. I was just being observant.
18:46
So if you want to know what the Diabelli variations
18:49
are all about, you can go straight to this recording.
18:53
So these are 10 recommendations that I think
18:57
give you a fairly full sense of Stephen Kovacevic
19:02
and his artistry. And given how these recordings
19:05
have really stood the test of time, I suspect
19:09
that they always will stand the test of time.
19:12
This is Jed Disler, and you've been listening
19:15
to The Piano Maven, your friendly podcast guide
19:18
to piano recordings. Thank you for listening,
19:22
and I look forward to being with you for our
19:25
next episode.