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Boris Giltburg's Ravishing Rachmaninov · 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
• 0:19
  Piano Maven through my Substack page, and I've
• 0:22
  provided a link to do so in our... episode description
• 0:26
  paid subscribers get a free download at the beginning
• 0:30
  of each month and your support will help keep
• 0:34
  this podcast alive and kicking throughout the
• 0:38
  year I find it interesting how my podcast episodes
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  about standard repertoire or the episodes where
• 0:45
  I talk about famous pianists tend to get the
• 0:49
  most hits or the most views from YouTube users.
• 0:53
  You know, you can find The Piano Maven on all
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  podcast platforms like Spotify, Apple Music,
• 1:00
  and YouTube, of course. You name it. But when
• 1:04
  I do an episode about contemporary music or contemporary
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  -ish music or a pianist whom you may not know,
• 1:15
  These episodes get relatively few hits or views.
• 1:19
  For example, I had thousands of viewers weighing
• 1:23
  in on my various Chopin episodes, as well as
• 1:29
  my recent episode about Yu -chan Lim playing
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  Bach's Goldberg Variations. But... When I recently
• 1:36
  did Morton Feldman's Triadic Memories, not even
• 1:40
  200 people checked it out. However, those of
• 1:44
  you who did see the Feldman episode wrote comments,
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  and I got some really intelligent and astute
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  and very caring feedback, and that really meant
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  a lot to me. But there was one YouTube viewer
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  who responded to the Feldman episode like this.
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  This viewer said, Hello, Jed. Will you be reviewing
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  the new Boris Giltberg disc with Rachmaninoff's
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  music? I've been loving it. I mean, what does
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  that have to do with Morton Feldman? So at first
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  I thought of writing back to say, What's the
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  matter? You don't care about Morty Feldman? But
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  instead, I wrote back that, I actually had reviewed
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  the Boris Giltberg disc quite recently for International
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  Piano Magazine, and that I liked the disc very
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  much. And I thought, well, sure, I'll do a podcast
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  episode about it. So here we go. I'm going to
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  talk about a release from Noxus with Boris Giltberg
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  playing early piano works of Rachmaninoff. This
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  is a pianist who always has shown a natural and
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  idiomatic affinity with Rachmaninoff's music.
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  In the past, I've found Giltberg sometimes to
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  be too creative for his own good as an interpreter.
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  Like, I thought his cycle of the complete Rachmaninoff
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  preludes for Noxus had a lot of mannered and
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  contrived playing about it. But evidently, Gildberg's
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  imagination seems to be more and more tempered
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  in terms of both simplicity and expressive economy.
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  This was especially true about his excellent
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  cycle of the Beethoven piano concertos for Noxus.
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  This is a cycle, by the way, that I keep forgetting
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  to talk about on these podcasts whenever the
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  subject of Beethoven concerto cycles pop up.
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  But I think also for this Rachmaninoff disc,
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  Giltberg is showing simplicity and expressive
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  economy as well as his exceptional pianism. And
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  he is on great form, both musically and technically,
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  throughout this release. This disc contains all
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  of the pieces. that encompass Rachmaninoff's
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  Opus 3, which includes that famous prelude in
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  C -sharp minor, Opus 3 No. 2. And Gildberg had
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  recorded this prelude earlier in that complete
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  prelude cycle I talked about, and he's re -recorded
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  the prelude as part of the Opus 3 set for this
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  disc. And, of course, I had to make a comparison
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  between the two performances. In the earlier
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  recording with Gildberg, I felt that he kind
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  of overshot that central episode's triplet chord
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  climax. You know, whatever that passage is. and
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  I felt that he was getting more excited than
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  exciting, if you know what I mean. So as a result,
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  the melodic articulation went out the window.
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  But in this new recording, all of the textural
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  elements fall perfectly into place, and with
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  a much wider dynamic range at that. I also have
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  to say that Gildberg is helped by the engineering.
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  because this disc was recorded at the Wyestone
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  Estate, which is that roomy acoustic where most
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  recordings for the Nimbus label take place. But
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  unlike many Nimbus productions, the resonant
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  ambience does not turn diffuse or get... even
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  the least bit swimmy, shall we say, in this Noxus
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  recording. And the engineering captures the sound
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  of Giltberg's Faziole grand piano with really
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  warm realism. It's a very beautifully engineered
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  disc. The other opus three pieces come off gorgeously.
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  Listen, for example, to the pianist's remarkably
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  three -dimensional melody accompaniment separation
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  in both versions of the E major melody. Also
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  notice the many gradations of nuance in the serenade.
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  I would call Rachmaninoff's Three Nocturnes from
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  1887 that he wrote when he still was in his teens
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  masterpieces in because they have traces of the
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  Rachmaninoff to come. But in these pieces, Gilbert
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  makes the most compelling case possible. And
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  in the F major nocturne, he really shapes those
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  cross -rhythmic phrases very cogently. It's a
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  beautiful performance. He also plays those four
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  pieces from 1887 and 1888 really beautifully.
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  The variety of texture and timbre that he brings
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  to that early E flat minor preludes, tremolos,
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  I think is worth the price of the whole release.
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  And the gavotte that's... part of this group
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  conveys an infectious and real jaunty lilt, and
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  it's propelled by hard -hitting left -hand accents
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  which remind me of the kind of left -hand thrusts
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  that you often hear in Rachmaninoff's own piano
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  recordings. This was... Rachmaninoff's trademark
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  as a pianist, and I think that Gilbert seems
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  to be channeling Rachmaninoff's own playing.
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  And the duetting right -hand counterpoint in
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  the Nocturne, Op. 10 No. 1, seems to be coming
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  from two different pianos in two different rooms.
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  The only performance on this disc that I thought
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  was a little bit of a letdown was a piece...
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  within the Opus 10 more so de Salon. And that
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  was the Mazurka. And I felt that Giltberg's performance
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  was a little emphatic and rather heavy -handed.
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  And I compared it to Howard Shelley, who brought
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  a much lighter touch and lilt to this piece.
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  But that's just one reservation that I have for
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  a disc that I think is really quite beautiful.
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  And I think it's one of Boris Giltberg's Berg's
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  finest releases, and I highly, highly recommend
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  it. This is Jed Disler, and you've been listening
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  to The Piano Maven, your friendly podcast guide
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  to piano recordings, and I look forward to being
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  with you next time for our next episode. Take
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  good care.