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Nikolai Demidenko's Schubert Revisited · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

• 0:07
  This is Jed Disler, and welcome to The Piano
• 0:11
  Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano recordings.
• 0:15
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  or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. rss .com. But
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  That's F -R -E -E, not T -H -R -E -E. Maybe I
• 1:05
  should give you three free monthly downloads.
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  Hey, why not? And we also have group Piano Maven
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  Zoom meetings every other month. That's something
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  that we recently instigated. And there will be
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  another one, or another one will have passed,
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  I guess, when this episode drops. do consider
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  taking out a subscription to The Piano Maven,
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  and you will find a link to do so in the episode
• 1:35
  description. Your support really does help keep
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  this podcast alive and in production. This has
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  been a very busy month for me, preparing for
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  recording sessions and upcoming concerts. But
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  during one of my much needed breaks from my routine,
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  and this is usually when I go on my exercise
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  bicycle in my workroom, I pulled down this Schubert.
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  release on the Hyperion label that I hadn't thought
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  about in years. And the interpretations I find,
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  once again, very absorbing and, for the most
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  part, really convincing. These are recordings
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  made in 1995 of the Schubert Wonder of Fantasy,
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  the Six Moments Musico, both sets of Impromptus,
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  and the Three Klavierstück. Deutsch No. 946,
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  and these all feature the Russian pianist Nikolai
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  Demidenko. You don't hear too much from him on
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  record these days, but in the 1990s, he was recording
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  rather steadily for Hyperion. I like his Momo
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  Musico a lot. He takes his time over the first
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  piece. But the moderate tempers never lapse into
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  micromanagement or self -awareness the way that
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  they do with other players whose initials are
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  Simon Bartow, for example. And he plays the second
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  piece in A -flat, you know, the lyrical one,
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  just simply and beautifully. And the third moment
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  musical, you know, the famous one in F minor,
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  it's very brisk and forthright. It has very subtle
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  dabs of rubato and, you know, maybe the legato.
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  touch is a little creamy and suave. But look,
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  it's okay. It's really a nice interpretation.
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  He races through the contrapuntal fourth moment
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  musical. I think it's a little too fast for the
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  counterpoint to register. And it certainly doesn't
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  have the linear shaping and sense of breathing
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  in the great Clifford Curzon version. But, you
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  know, for a purely virtuoso treatment of this
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  piece. It's kind of fun to listen to. And Demi
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  Denko plays number five quite vigorously. Now,
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  what's interesting is that he takes nine minutes
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  over the final piece, the sixth moment musical
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  in A -flat. But His beautiful balances between
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  the hands and his songful phrasing never managed
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  to sound unusually slow. There are some pianists
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  who play this piece in super slow, overly reverent
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  motion, and that means you, Sviatoslav Richter.
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  But somehow, Demidenko pulls it off. In the impromptus,
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  the Deutsch number 899, or if you want to be
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  politically correct, you say Opus 90, Demi Denko
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  gives a very dramatic account of the first impromptu,
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  and the E -flat impromptu is very carefully shaped
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  and jewel -like. with those cascading runs in
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  the right hand, having a real sense of air in
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  between the notes. It's not too fast, not too
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  slow. I sound like Goldilocks. Not too hot, not
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  too cold, just right. And Demi Denko plays the
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  G -flat impromptu really beautifully. He takes
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  a real à la bref tempo, and it really sings.
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  The fourth impromptu in the set is well played.
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  Maybe a little matter of fact for my taste. I
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  think it could have been more gracefully inflected.
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  In the Deutsch No. 935 set of impromptus, which
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  is also known as Op. 142, Demidenko plays a really
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  headlong and driving version of the opening F
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  minor impromptu. It's very exciting and headlong.
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  He takes it for a ride, and he keeps the music
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  moving. The A -flat impromptu is as simple and
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  shapely as its A -flat moment musical cousin.
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  The B -flat impromptu, the theme and variations,
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  may be a little self -conscious and contrived
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  in terms of certain phrasings and tempo relationships,
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  but it's a fine performance. But the finale in
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  F minor, for me, it's too contained and under
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  tempo for my taste. I mean, it's not under tempo
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  and heavy in the way of Grigori Sokolov's live
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  recording, but... If you compare Demi Denko next
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  to that Rudolph Serkin recording from Italian
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  radio, I think from 1957, I mean, that's in a
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  whole other world. I just feel like this performance
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  just needs to pick up and live more dangerously.
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  And the cross -rhythmic interaction of phrases
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  really needs to hit home. And it doesn't really
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  do it that much in this performance. The three
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  Klavierstücke, though, sound fabulous in Demidenko's
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  hands. He plays the first one, the one in E -flat
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  minor, in the version that incorporates the music
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  that Schubert discarded in his manuscript. And
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  that's just fine with me. You know, there's never
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  too much of a good thing with Schubert. The central
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  piece in E flat major gets the soaring bel canto
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  kind of treatment with brisker than usual tempos
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  that are never rushed, and it just sings and
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  soars. It's a really beautiful performance. And
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  speaking of brisk, that last piece in this group,
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  the one in C major, just goes like the proverbial
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  wind, and it's very supple and light -fingered.
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  I only miss... the kind of emphatic cross -rhythmic
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  accents that other pianists bring to this music,
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  but as virtuoso piano playing, it's really fine,
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  and I enjoy it a lot. The wanderer fantasy is
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  pianistically oriented with lots of color changes
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  and tricky bits of articulation that some may
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  feel draw more attention to Demi Denko than to
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  Schubert, but He plays the fugue with incredible
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  confidence and a real suave mastery of the notes.
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  Nothing gets out of the way. I mean, there's
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  no real sense of struggle, but pianistically,
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  it's really kind of amazing. I do prefer Murray
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  Pariah and Arthur Rubinstein in the fugue for
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  the kind of virtuosity that puts the music ahead
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  of the fingers. Also, I love the sheer physical
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  grasp and the dynamic power and concentration
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  of Sviatoslav Richter's 1963 studio recording,
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  which is still my reference wonder of fantasy.
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  But for all of the little tricks and bits of
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  business that Demidenko brings to the score,
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  he's never vulgar. I suspect that Schubert would
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  have appreciated such technical confidence. You
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  know, there was that story that Schubert was
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  playing through the Wanderer fantasy on the piano,
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  but when he got to the fugue, he got stuck because
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  it was too difficult, and he just stopped and
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  he said, oh, let the devil play it. I don't know
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  if it's a true story, but I wish it was true.
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  Anyway, I really enjoyed revisiting this Nikolai
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  Demidenko Schubert release with fresh ears, and
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  I recommend that you give it a try. I've posted
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  a link to where you can stream this release and
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  also where you can get downloads. I don't think
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  it's available anymore in physical format. Thanks
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  for tuning in, and I look forward to being with
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  you for our next episode.