COMPOSERS: Moszkowski
LABELS: Collins
WORKS: Morceaux, Opp. 83, 86 & 87; Fantaisie ‘Hommage à Schumann’, Op. 5; Barcarolle, Op. 27/1; Étude, Op. 67/2; Scherzo-Valse, Op. 40
PERFORMER: Seta Tanyel (piano)
CATALOGUE NO: 15192
Many of us will have heard, or played, Moszkowski’s Spanish Dances for piano duet, but, appealing as they are, they give no hint of the rich variety of his keyboard output as a whole. Seta Tanyel seems to regard it as her mission to revive neglected Polish piano music, and having established Scharwenka securely in the Collins catalogue (though whatever happened to the Fourth Concerto?) she is doing the same for Moszkowski. And this third volume of his music is just as good as the other two.
Moszkowski’s Hommage à Schumann is exactly what it says, a gentle pastiche written in tribute to the composer whose music influenced him the most, but the three sets of Morceaux, composed after his move to Paris, possess a quasi-Gallic chromaticism and charm and display conspicuously his innate feel for the keyboard. They’re miniatures, some of them are in salon style, and they embody the catchy tune and rhythms of the ‘Chanson napolitaine’, the neo-classical grace of the ‘Gavotte’ and the delicate lilt of ‘Complainte’.
It would be hard to imagine a pianist more attuned to Moszkowski’s idiom than Tanyel. Her control of the keyboard and natural understanding of the music are palpable. Wadham Sutton