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Severin von Eckardstein's remarkable "Vers la flamme" · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

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  This is Jed Distler and welcome to the Piano Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano
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  recordings.
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  and to help keep this podcast in production.
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  There's a release that for some reason it didn't seem to get all of the attention that
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  I thought it would have gotten.
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  When I reviewed this disc for ClassicsToday.com, I think sometime back in 2023, I'm not sure
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  when in that year, but the disc features the German pianist Severin von Eckartstein who
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  has come out with some very interesting releases over the years.
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  And I was especially taken with the program that he put together for this release that
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  is entitled Ver la Flamme, which is the title of one of Alexander Skriabin's most incendiary
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  piano pieces.
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  Now when it comes to program building, most normal pianists would save putting a piece
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  like Ver la Flamme at the end of a recital or at a place where the climactic point would
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  seem appropriate in this recital.
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  But you would never open a recital with Ver la Flamme any more than you would open a recital
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  with Schumann's Toccata.
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  It just does not seem that practical.
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  But leave it to Severin von Eckartstein.
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  He opens this disc with the Skriabin Ver la Flamme and it's kind of a kamikaze move on
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  his part because basically by playing this piece and playing it the way he does, he basically
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  throws all of his cards on the table and he gives a very impassioned performance that's
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  full of ferocity and he spares no expense on those trills.
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  I mean he pounces on them like he's a Vladimir Horowitz mini-me or something like that.
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  And he really brings it off.
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  He brings off this conception amazingly well.
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  So what does this pianist do to follow such a wild opening act?
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  He goes into the Richard Strauss tone poem Death and Transfiguration in his own solo
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  piano arrangement.
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  What an idea.
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  I mean who does this kind of thing on a recital?
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  But again leave it to Severin von Eckartstein.
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  And what I like about his transcription is that it's not literal in the way that let's
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  say Otto Singer's solo piano transcription of Death and Transfiguration is.
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  What I mean by that is that when you have string tremolos, Otto Singer simply reproduces
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  their equivalent on the piano and they sound something like silent movie cliches to be
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  honest.
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  I don't think there's a recording of that but I have read through the Otto Singer transcription
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  and it does sort of sound like silent movie music.
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  But von Eckartstein instead uses arpeggios and runs and all other kinds of pianistic
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  figurations that embrace the whole keyboard in a very Scriabin-esque kind of way actually.
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  And it really works with the Strauss because the climaxes come off like waves rushing to
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  the shore rather than like rattling beer mugs on a table in a bar during an earthquake.
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  How did I come up with such a strange analogy?
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  But you get my drift.
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  This is a very effective transcription and I guess it's like what would a Strauss tone
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  poem sound like had someone like Scriabin transcribed it?
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  It really, really works.
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  And then Severin von Eckartstein moves from Richard Strauss to Olivier Messiaen which
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  is another bit of a shock, especially in how he plays the final piece from Messiaen's
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  Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant Jésus.
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  And his manner of playing this piece is kind of hard-hitting and even aggressive as if
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  Messiaen was like a heavy metal composer.
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  But I must say that this interpretive approach kind of works.
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  I mean it's not your rounded off stained glass blended color brand of Messiaen that you usually
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  get.
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  It's like well what if Vladimir Horowitz had played the Messiaen?
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  It might have sounded something like how Severin von Eckartstein plays this last piece.
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  And then after the Messiaen, get this, the pianist improvises a little bit in the style
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  of Messiaen and then he morphs his improvisation into something that sounds like fake Richard
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  Strauss.
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  And then the improvisation gradually settles into something that sounds like fake late
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  Beethoven.
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  And then the pianist settles into real late Beethoven and he plays the final sonata, the
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  sonata number 32 in C minor, Opus 111.
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  I have to cite my late friend Harris Goldsmith's statement when he said something like Maurizio
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  Polini's 1970s recording of the first movement of 111 as representing quote unquote purposeful
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  bleakness.
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  And that's exactly the impression that I get from von Eckartstein's performance of the
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  first movement of 111.
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  He's like a pianistic machine gun in terms of his articulation.
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  And when he plays the arietta, it's a little bit more about force and decisiveness than
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  ethereal mist and spiritual implications.
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  And as you listen to this, you'll notice a stronger left hand presence than usual.
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  And it gives the unfolding variations in this movement a palpable sense of backbone.
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  Now some listeners may feel that this interpretation is a little clinical or cold.
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  Maybe so in a way.
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  I was somehow reminded of that 1964 recording by Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli.
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  But without that pianist's anachronistic breaking of the hands and his arguably sentimental
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  retards.
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  In any event, the totality of this recital of Severin von Eckartstein makes you think
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  and it makes you listen and it probably will shake you up a little bit.
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  And after I listened to this disc a few times and then wrote my review, it took me a while
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  to get this recording, to get this whole program and this assertive brand of piano playing
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  out of my head and out of my inner ear.
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  I just couldn't stop thinking about this recording for a while.
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  In short, this is really powerful stuff and this is a recital that can only come from
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  a truly adventurous pianist with something to say.
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  And that describes Severin von Eckartstein to a proverbial T. He's really found himself,
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  artistically speaking, with this release.
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  And it really makes a statement.
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  I highly, highly recommend that you check it out and you can find a link to listen and
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  to purchase this disc in my episode description.
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  This is Jed Dissler and you've been listening to the Piano Maven, your friendly podcast
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  guide to piano recordings.
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  Thanks so much for listening and I look forward to being with you for the next episode.
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  Take care.