Rubinstein Plus Four

/ : / ! 30 X THE NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1965. Rubinstein Plus Four TUR RUBINSTEIN’S sections are carefully planned ations composed continuing superiority and the liaisons between whole piece lasts fi as a Chopin player is sections are smoothly spun and 18 seconds (9434; shown again in his lat out. 6434). est recording of the Polonaises The big C minor Sonata Lutoslawski is and Impromptus. The 79- is rarely played. Its first leading composer today, yeai^old pianist replaces his movement is typical of the in 1918 he has embraced old mono recordings of the Schubert who, fascinated by avant-garde techniques music with stereo disks of the someone else’s music — in have proliferated since best quality. It would not be this case Beethoven’s Vari war. But this, apparently, accurate to say something ations in C minor—produced a prewar piece, for the new has been added to his a parallel so close it does ing while spiced with playing of them. To the con not bear scrutiny. Uncon nances, is far from trary, Rubinstein’s playing in scious re-write or not, it is In fact, no self-i recent years has grown ever blatantly Beethoven’s theme, serialist would even more refined, more classical changed with an extending the Paganini theme—too in restraint. He never was phrase. The music has its much of a romantic exag- own interest, to be sure. Aft ititious. gerator, but now his per er all, a master doodling is It is primarily formances sound completely still a master. progam-closer, or stripped of all superfluities. should be snapped up by two The music speaks more di A Stereo First piano teams. Eden and T But the chief enjoyments rectly, more simply, with play it, as they play the greater clarity (RCA Victor come from the three fol lowing movements. The Ada works, with flawless e two disks, 7037, mono and ble, brilliant pianism, stereo). gio, a song, is given a strong rhythmic driv The conception of the music songful treatment by the YBACK—Artur Rubinstein gets just as involved listening to his umpteenth has not changed. Only the pianist. The Menuetto: Al —Howard in disk as his first. His latest album is of the Polonaises and Impromptus. way of realizing has become legro (which has the energy purified. The playing is not of a Scherzo) is playful, and anemic or sterile. The same the final Allegro has a romp robustness swells the meas ing quality despite the serious ures of the polonaises, the key. This is the first stereo same sense of brooding, the recording of the Sonata. healthy singing tone. The The Fantasy is available in decibels have been cut down stereo in the interesting a little. The extra amounts Sviatoslav Richter perform of dasih, the impetuous ex ance (Angel) and a solid ploding.? of chords or shifts one by Leon Fleisher (Epic). in tempo that were charac Vladimir Ashkenazy’s latest teristic of the younger Rubin disk for London was, for stein are gone, but the logic these ears, a disappointment. and stability of the playing On it, the young Soviet pianist has a spontaneity of its own. plays the four Ballades and Trying to describe the Trois Nouvclles Etudes of playing is impossible. Just Chopin, and while there is listen to the throb of the E nothing wrong with the play flat minor Polonaise, the ing - the notes are there, the heroic step of the one in A, phrasings seem to be shaped the cello-toned, almost pas sympathetically—the music sionless, but impassioned sing just sounds too tame (9422; ing of the F sharp Impromptu. stereo 6422). Full Cup Ashkenazy brings his won Besides the full cup of derfully fluid pianism to the musical value, Victor has pro music, and in most cases that duced a mellow sounding disk would be enough. But what to match the playing. The of the now-expansive, now- recording was made in Car introverted Chopin? The G negie Hall, and the favorable minor Ballade—such a per acoustics of its auditorium sonal piece of music that no do nice things for the piano. two pianists play it remotely Of course, it helps to be re alike—gets a conservatory cording Rubinstein. performance. The sections are Gary Graffman's latest disk arbitrarily joined and there is for Columbia is a solid effort, no sense of overriding line. In not as imaginative as one the F major Ballade, the would like, perhaps, but one initial tempo is so slow, the which wears well, revealing melody never sings. The A more details and nice touches flat is the best, but again in with repeated hearing. The the F minor, when great pas American pianist has given sion is called for, or really us two big Schubert pieces, volatile articulation, as in the the Fantasy in C (“Wan coda, the playing is merely derer”) and the Sonata in C proper. The Etudes, lesser minor (Op. Posthumous) works, but enjoyable are (ML 6135; stereo MS 6735). beautifully scaled, balanced Mr. Graffman’s playing is and executed. always secure. His technique The recorded sound is not and musicianship are rock overly brilliant, nor is it dull. solid. He does not go in An interesting two-piano for personality-playing — for disk from London presents rhythmic eccentricities, dra the Israeli pianists Bracha matic dynamic changes. His Eden and Alexander Tamir playing could probably stand in music by four composers. some flair, but if it does not There are Rachmaninoff’s sweep the listener off his Second Suite (Op. 17), Mil feet, it does give him plenty haud's Scaramouche, Poul to chew on. enc’s Sonata 1918 (in the The "Wanderer” has little 1939 revision) and-a really of the romantic visions one unexpected item—Witold Lut- suspects Schubert was having oslawaski’s Variations on a at the time of composition. Theme of Paganini. This is What it does present, how the same theme used by ever, is a clear understanding Brahms, Liszt, Rachmaninoff of the form of the piece— and---- others, and this is prob- the* tempos of the ensuing ably the shortest se.

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