COMPOSERS: Bloch,Debussy,Ligeti,Prokofiev,Stravinsky
LABELS: Champs Hill Records
ALBUM TITLE: Circus & Magic
PERFORMER: Reinis Zarins (piano)
CATALOGUE NO: CHRCD048
This variegated collection of works includes a rarity that Reinis Zarinsˇ has discovered: Ernest Bloch’s Four Circus Pieces are not in print, but definitely should be. They were written in a rush in Cleveland, where this Swiss-born composer had settled, and though they were only meant as a diversion, his performances of them – with his own running commentaries – made them a popular concert staple. They echo Chopin and Debussy, and Stravinsky’s Petrushka is mirrored in both texture and gesture, but Bloch’s soundworld is
his own, and very beguiling.
This 28-year-old Latvian has a refined artistry that in some ways serves the Debussy pieces well – Feux d’artifice has a fastidious flamboyance – but Masques gets lost in the detail of its own passagework: its contours need sharper rhythmic definition, while the cathedral is shrouded in a mist that lacks the necessary drama. By contrast, the Ligeti is a delight, beginning with needle-sharp precision and culminating in Mediterranean warmth. Zarins's Prokofiev is nicely idiomatic, and his performance of Petrushka is one of the most charming accounts of this work I have ever heard.
Michael Church