Fantasie – Seven Composers, Seven Keyboards Works by CPE Bach, JS Bach, Busoni, Chopin, Mendelssohn, Mozart and Schnittke Alexander Melnikov (harpsichord, fortepiano, tangent piano, piano) Harmonia Mundi HMM 902702 68:24 mins
Alexander Melnikov is a multifaceted artist at the best of times, but his achievement here is quite remarkable. This programme of fantasias ranges from Bach to Schnittke, each performed on an instrument of an appropriate vintage. Several of the instruments are from Melnikov’s own collection.
After playing JS Bach’s Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue on a rich, glittery two-manual harpsichord (a modern copy of a German 17th/18th-century one), he moves on to an astonishing tangentenflügel (tangent piano) for CPE, an instrument that offers a startlingly wide, dreamlike range of colour. After Mozart on a copy of a 1795 Kern, Mendelssohn’s Fantasia Op. 28 proves a special highlight, performed with windswept brilliance on a duskily mysterious Graff of 1828: an instrument restored by fortepiano legend Edwin Beunk that clearly facilitates full-tilt virtuosity without the encumbrance of heavy modern piano action. Chopin’s F minor Fantasy takes on an intimate tone with a soft if slightly later (1885) Erard, though Melnikov here sounds maybe less comfortable with the music’s emotional content. Moving into the 20th century, Busoni is presented on an elderly Bechstein and finally Schnittke on a Steinway.
Contextualised so strongly and imaginatively, the modern grand emerges simply as the latest development of many – equal yet not superior to its predecessors. While reaching for increased power and brightness, it yields to older models for subtlety, colour and character. Melnikov does justice to them all.
Jessica Duchen
