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American Record Guide
independent critics reviewing classical recordings and music in concert
September-October 2012
BLUMENFELD: Piano Pieces
Jouni Somero
FC 9706—69 minutes
For people familiar with the music of Felix Blumenfeld,
there should be no qualms about
acquiring this recording. All of the selections
save one are new to CD, and the performances
are beautifully realized with careful attention
to phrasing and dynamics.
Blumenfeld (1863-1931) was born in Russia
and studied composition under Rimsky-Korsakoff.
As a piano teacher he counted among
his students Simon Barere, Vladimir Horowitz,
and Maria Yudina. His music is romantic,
technically challenging, and Russian to the
core. Only the Etude de Concert, Op. 24, is
duplicated on another disc, so this recording is
mandatory for expanding your Blumenfeld
collection. As a study in contrast it is enlightening
to compare this with the performance by
Daniel Blumenthal on Marco Polo. Somero is
the more powerful player, though Blumenthal
achieves impressive results with his refined,
more poetic playing. It would be hard to
choose between them.
The Suite Polonaise has four dance movements
and must be a delight to play as well as
to hear. It is unpretentious and has the wonderful
melodic and harmonic twists of the late
Russian romantics. It also owes a certain debt
to Chopin. With its ten brief movements, the
Moments Lyriques strike a more serious tone,
with melody slightly more elusive than the
Suite and a definite sadness defining most of
the pieces. Nicolas Medtner comes to mind
most often in listening to it.
Two Nocturnes, Souvenir Douloureux, and
the other pieces are all worth getting to know.
The short Danse, Op. 53:1 that concludes the
program reaches into new harmonic territory
reflective of Scriabin or Catoire.
In all of this, Finnish-born (1963) Jouni
Somero shows complete mastery and the highest
interpretive skills. None of the music save
the Suite can be considered to belong to the
salon. All of it is serious and requires great subtlety
and a willingness to probe the depths.
Somero studied in Cologne and Switzerland
with Georgy Cziffra and Michael Ponti. In 1987
he was awarded a diploma at the International
Music Competition in Rio de Janeiro. He is
well represented on records. Notes are decent,
if brief, and the recording is very good. Chalk
this up as another recent discovery of some
importance.
BECKER
American Record Guide
independent critics reviewing classical recordings and music in concert
September-October 2012
TCHAIKOVSKY: Piano Pieces, opp 5, 7, 8, 40
Mikhail Pletnev
Regis 1354—64 minutes
Sonata in G; Children’s Album; Aveau Passionne;
Impromptu; Valse-Scherzo
Jouni Somero, p
FC 9728—77 minutes
The Pletnev is a reissue from Melodiya (from
1986 and 1988). This may be its first appearance
in this country. Had I heard it back then, I
would have praised it for its elegance, style,
and spirit. Listening to it now gives me great
pleasure and joy at having discovered the
many beauties of performances totally in sympathy
with the music. Were I required to recommend
a single disc of the composer’s piano
music, this would be the one. While all of the
selections belong to the realm of salon music,
they are melodic and charming. The slower
pieces also have a wistful sadness and bleed a
bit from the heart of old Russia.
The remaining three opus numbers are
additional gems to remind us what we are
missing since Pletnev has not recorded the
composer’s complete piano works. Although
we have a nicely performed complete set with
Victoria Postnikova and the start of a set with
Oxana Yablonskaya, neither is quite in the
same league as Pletnev. Even if you have the
Postnikova, you may want to consider this as a
supplement. The uncredited notes are good,
and the recording is excellent.
With Somero we have the start of yet
another set of the complete piano music.
Although this is marked as Volume 2, I have
not seen Volume 1; and if you look carefully
enough, the present volume is also marked
Volume 3, apparently of a series called “Russian
Project”. Forget this, and forget the strange
spellings on this Finnish label’s website.
Somero is one heck of a pianist and I am
pleased to make his acquaintance twice this
month (see Blumenfeld review).
The Grand Sonata in G is a monumental
work lasting over half an hour. It has many
recordings—even one by Pletnev on Melodiya
with pretty nearly this same coupling. A check
of the Regis website shows that it is available
once again. It could be worth some serious
consideration. Somero meanwhile, aided by
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some fabulous sound, offers a powerfully penetrating
performance, as gutsy as one could
wish in this super-charged music. Some might
quibble with his demonic, driven approach,
though the music is designed to take no captors
and to live constantly on the brink.
Postnikova, on the other hand, takes several
minutes longer and makes a heavier, more
weighty experience of the music. Her lyrical
contrasts are more deeply felt, but we have less
of an exciting ride, particularly in the Finale.
She is no lightweight in the technical department,
though anyone playing this music must
be able to toss off difficulties with ease.
Sviatoslav Richter polishes off the Sonata
in slightly over 30 minutes, yet there is never
any feeling of undue haste. I am inclined to
give him the nod for overall excellence; very
few pianists could duplicate his achievement.
With everything perfectly in place, and his
expressiveness reaching the heart and soul of
this music, all one can do is sit back and marvel.
Yablonskaya takes an altogether different
view of this music. Her performance is all delicacy
and avoidance of fire and brimstone. If I
find it at odds with the nature of the music, she
certainly tries to make a valid case for it. Don’t
expect it to set you afire.
The pleasant little pieces that make up the
Children’s Album find strong advocacy in the
hands of both Somero and Postnikova.
Tchaikovsky’s answer to Kinderszenen was
even dedicated to Schumann. The remaining
three pieces in Somero’s selection are without
opus numbers and date from 1889. They are
most pleasant to listen to. Somero’s notes are
extremely brief, but to the point.
BECKER
American Record Guide
independent critics reviewing classical recordings and music in concert
May-Juli 2014
GADE: Piano Sonata; Aquarelles;
GRIEG: Sonata; Lyric Pieces (2)
Jouni Somero
FCRCD- 9750—58 minutes
Finnish pianist Somero is a big man, has a big
technique, a big repertory, and performs mostly
big works on the fringe of the repertory. This
recording gives us the opportunity of contrasting
two piano sonatas—one by the Norwegian
Grieg, and the other by his teacher, Niels Gade
of Denmark.
Both are large and challenging works. The
Gade was written in 1840 when Chopin, Liszt,
and Schumann were composing their greatest
solo piano works—and their influence is
strongly felt. Grieg’s Sonata was written in
1865 near the end of his studies with Gade.
Both composers were in their early 20s when
they wrote the sonatas, and Grieg dedicated
his to his mentor. A further bit of intertwining
occurs with the Lyric Piece ‘Gade’ which Grieg
wrote the year of his teacher’s death. The other
Lyric Piece is the famous ‘Notturno’, which
Somero executes with loving care.
The Grieg Sonata gives us a good idea how
this popular miniaturist handled larger forms.
The Andante molto has some of the lyricism to
be found in the Piano Concerto, and all his
work has Norwegian folk idioms. Somero takes
full honors over all recordings I have heard of
both sonatas, and they are pretty good. With
his splashy showmanship and probing lyricism
there is little to take exception to.
Both sonatas are rhetorical, virtuosic
works. They are in the same key and harmonically
share a similar dimension. While Grieg
has added an extra ‘Alla Menuetto’ movement
before the Finale, Gade’s three-movement
Sonata is the longer work by five minutes. Both
hold the attention well and have arresting
pages for both pianist and listener.
If you already have recordings of these
sonatas rest content; they require a high level
of pianistic skills fully met by the competition.
If you do not, consider Somero—in splendid
sound and with his own probing notes. You
will not be disappointed.
BECKER
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American Record Guide
independent critics reviewing classical recordings and music in concert
September-October 2012
BORTKIEWICZ: Piano Works
Volume 3: The Little Wanderer; 6 Preludes,
op 13; Marionettes; Sonata 1
Volume 5: 4 Pieces, op 10; 3 Pieces, op 24; 12
New Etudes, op 29
Jouni Somero, p
3: FC 9723—68 minutes 5: FC 9736—72 minutes
Sergei Bortkiewicz (1877-1952) was born in the
Ukraine, educated in St Petersburg and
Leipzig, and died an Austrian citizen in Vienna.
While his life began only four years later
and lasted nine years longer than Rachmaninoff’s
the two Russians can easily be viewed as
exact contemporaries. There is no evidence
that they ever met or performed each other’s
music. While Rachmaninoff’s life story is fairly
well known, leaving Russia for good in 1917
during the Revolution and eventually becoming
an American citizen, Bortkiewicz found
himself caught up in the horrors of the Russian
Revolution and both World Wars. He moved
often and was financially dependent on the
generosity of friends and benefactors. Even
though he became an Austrian citizen in 1925,
he was viewed as a Russian by the Nazi regime
and his works were banned in Germany. The
wealth that Rachmaninoff earned as a concert
pianist, conductor, and composer the last 25
years of his life were completely unknown to
Bortkiewicz. I find it therefore somewhat
incongruous that Bortkiewicz’s music, while
similar stylistically to Rachmaninoff’s, is more
positive and bright than the pervasive melancholy
we associate with Rachmaninoff.
Bortkiewicz’s musical style is heavily influenced
by Chopin, Schumann, Tchaikovsky,
and Liadov. There are also similarities with
Rachmaninoff and even early Scriabin. 38 of
his 70 opus numbers are for solo piano (a
number are 10 or more short pieces), two more
are for piano duet, plus three piano concertos,
a number of songs, and a good quantity of
chamber music with piano. He was quite a fine
concert pianist; and, except for a few sets of
pieces specifically designed for amateur
pianists, his music is very challenging.
Of the music on these two discs, I found
the sonata and the etudes the most compelling,
with performances to match. These
are big virtuoso pieces, the sonata similar to
the first sonatas of Rachmaninoff and Scriabin,
except this is in a major key. Bortkiewicz
packed the etudes with all the romantic emotion
and technical demands that you are familiar
with if you know Chopin’s. Both The Little
Wanderer and Marionettes are sets of teaching
pieces in a wide variety of musical styles, and
could easily introduce young musicians to a
wide range of music. Somero imbues each
with the requisite panache, and they hold your
interest over many hearings. The other sets of
pieces range from short two-or-three minute
pieces like the Six Preludes to more substantial
six-minute plus pieces with Chopin-inspired
titles like Ballade, Nocturne, and Impromptu.
Jouni Somero (b. 1963) is a very busy
Finnish pianist with over 2500 concerts and 80
recordings to his credit. He has recorded four
volumes of Rachmaninoff, five volumes of
Finnish piano music, as well as eight volumes
of Bortkiewicz. His booklet notes are very good
(and well translated from the original Finnish).
He has all the necessary technical equipment
and sensitivity, coupled with a clear affinity for
late romantic piano music. These are very
enjoyable recordings.
HARRINGTON
American Record Guide
independent critics reviewing classical recordings and music in concert
July-August 2012
TCHAIKOVSKY: Piano Pieces 1
Jouni Somero
FC 9720—76 minutes
Tchaikovsky’s piano music is not as well
known as it should be, and Finnish pianist
Jouni Somero makes a strong case for it in this
well filled disc, first of a series. The longest
work here is the Piano Sonata from 1865, a student
experiment full of attractive ideas, though
little of pianistic interest. On the other hand,
the program includes a treacherous etude,
cleanly and forcefully played. Most of this is
salon pieces: marches, mazurkas, waltzes,
scherzos, and a gorgeously melancholy ‘Chanson
Triste’. These are charming, well made,
and unmistakably Tchaikovskian.
Somero’s tone is light and often lovely. He
has released a number of CDs on his own
label, Finn Concert, much of it rare repertory.
This is the most attractive one I have heard so far.
SULLIVAN
Dazzling and Muscular Performances of Godard’s
Best Piano Music
By Hexameron on February 1, 2016 (Amazon)
Benjamin Godard (1849-1895) was much like Saint-Saens: a cosmopolitan Frenchman not at all seduced by Wagner and instead influenced by Mendelssohn, Chopin, and Liszt. He was manifestly inspired by these composers when writing for the piano. Many of his pieces meet the exigencies of the amateur salon market, while others require the virtuosity of a concert pianist. The Grand Piano label is surveying Godard’s piano music with pianist Eliane Reyes, but she is outclassed by Jouni Somero, who has the muscle and spirited élan to bring out the best in these works.
The “Valse Chromatique’ is a tour-de-force, one of Godard’s most garishly acrobatic examples of bravura pianism. It is bustling with ostentatious flourishes, glissandi, splashy octaves, and Alkan-like chromatic scalar figures going up and down. Somero plays the hell out of it, achieving more bombast than the piece probably requires, and the ensuring fireworks are riveting. By contrast the “Promenade en mer” is a gentle salon piece evoking a boat scene, which has a major tempestuous climax. Compared with Reyes, Somero is the better showman and performer. He exhibits tremendous brio and plays with colossal strength and Romantic abandon in the crescendos, whereas Reyes is restrained and keeps her dynamics low. She approaches this piece as if it’s a delicate French nocturne, while Somero tackles it with Lisztian flair.
A similar disparity between performers is on display in the Sonata Fantastique, perhaps Godard’s most significant piano work. Each movement is of a programmatic nature. “The Spirits of the Forest” features a rapid patter of tremolos and a repeated bass note figure depicting forest creatures. Godard employs the flamboyant attitude and pianistic devices of Liszt, and Somero’s heavier hand enlivens the work. “Goblins” is all bouncy and comical with a light elfin texture. “The Fairy of Love” is a Schumannesque song without words. In Somero’s hands, its passionate climax becomes a monumental grandiose outpouring; absolutely breath-taking and heartfelt. Reyes is cold and anemic by comparison. “The Spirits of the Sea” is akin to Chopin’s fastest and most turbulent of pieces with its breakneck speed and whirlwinds of arpeggios, all of which Somero plays confidently faster than Reyes.
Godard’s Piano Sonata No. 2 is cut from the same cloth as the first. It begins with an “Allegro” of Russian character, utilizing a staccato rendering of the “Dies Irae” motif in its first theme. Virtuosic flourishes and passagework are abundant. Once again, Somero demonstrates more fire and brio than Reyes. The “Adagio” feints the listener with a lyrical respite, but things are not as relaxing as a typical slow movement. Sudden rumblings of turbulence and a rousing dramatic central section keep things exciting. Somero gives it all he’s got, imbuing every moment of passion with more intensity than Reyes. He produces massive sonorities in a stentorian fashion, which Reyes seems uninterested in exploiting.
Bottom line: If you’re going to sample Godard’s piano music, this is the disc to get. Fans of virtuosic Romantic pianism should enjoy the sonatas. For those tempted by the ongoing survey by Grand Piano, my opinion is that Eliane Reyes is not temperamentally suited to this repertoire. Somero clearly enjoys performing this kind of music, injecting an appreciable degree of feeling and dynamic power into the sonatas.
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