Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Indispensable Scriabin purchase from a fiery newcomer!, 28 Jul 2008
First things first--this set does NOT offer the complete Scriabin solo piano music--ONLY THE WORKS WITH OPUS NUMBERS. This is not made clear in the various sites advertising this set, but that IS the case. Ms. Lettberg leaves out enough early, posthumously published Scriabin to fill another CD, but more about that later.
Lettberg plays everything in this set spectacularly--no need to hesitate because of an unfamiliar artist! As can be seen on the accompanying DVD, she tosses off this difficult stuff with relaxed nonchalance as if it were basic Czerny. She also understands the style, playing with flexible rubato, and a nervous intensity and hothouse passion absolutely de rigeur for this composer, and her tempi seem absolutely right. Her rhythmic capriciousness is appealing and stylistically appropriate, although sometimes (rarely) it leads her into slight rhythmic inaccuracies (i.e., the eighth, dotted eighth , sixteenth triplets in the first movement of Sonata No.3--she plays some of these as equal eighths. She also cultivates the nineteenth-century habit of anticipating her right hand with her left. Still, judging from the evidence of cylinders recorded in 1910, this was not foreign to Scriabin's own playing, and considering the many other good points of this set, can be overlooked. (Hamelin is more straightforward; so is Ponti, but not so well-recorded.)
The piano is a bit clangy in the treble and occasionally a little boomy in the bass (a tone control setting of treble at 9:00 and bass at 10:00 easily solved this for me). Lettberg's tone colors are varied and appropriate. She is also very conscious of inner voices, and lets them come through--VERY important in Scriabin. Early in his career, the composer injured his right hand through over-practice--yes, it's possible! Surely the forced period of practice with his left hand alone caused Scriabin to appreciate the rich tonal and contrapuntal possibilities of the baritone register of the instrument. He exploits this throughout his works, and pianists like Piers Lane are wrong to downplay it.
But, to get back to Ms. Lettberg--there is a LOT of music here, and perhaps it is unfair to expect her to be equally excellent in all of it. Nevertheless, for the sake of absolute honesty, I chose to withhold the fifth star. I enjoyed this set tremendously, but just occasionally, in certain pieces, found myself wishing for more wild-eyed intensity (Vers la flamme, the Etudes Op.65, and Op.8 No.12). Not that Lettberg doesn't usually supply this quality when needed--her Sonata No.6 is wonderfully savage when called for (indeed she's especially good in the late works). It's just that there are a few pieces where she seems a little laid back, when she should be baring her fangs.
That said, Lettberg's set is a astounding achievement--full to the brim with exciting, sensuous and sensitive Scriabin playing--and the sound is certainly better than Ponti's set. For Scriabinists, this is a MUST BUY-you won't be disappointed.
ATTENTION SCRIABIN COMPLETISTS!: you may want to supplement Lettberg's set with Coombs' CD, "The Early Scriabin," for Hyperion. This will give you everything except the "Albumleaves" in A-flat and F-sharp and the "Fantasy for Two Pianos." If you are a mad, manic and insatiable Scriabin completist (...am I alone and unobserved?--then let me confess! I AM one!), you might even want to supplement Coombs with Ponti's 5-CD set of miscellaneous piano music for VOX. This will give you even those three esoterica, plus an Op.8 No.12 alternate version vastly more electrifying than Coombs'.
One last word--I've heard scuttlebutt from my local CD dealer that CAPRICCIO has gone out of business, which must be a source of considerable distress to Ms. Lettberg. It might be a good idea to snatch up this valuable set quickly--who knows if or when it will be reissued?
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