Cascavelle follows up Aldo Ciccolini’s superb Chopin and Schumann releases with a three-disc set devoted to Grieg’s complete Lyric Pieces. Although these 2004 recordings date from Ciccolini’s 79th year, the veteran pianist sounds as youthful as ever. Indeed, the nervous energy and brash qualities he often brings to the faster pieces are akin to how Grieg played his own music, so far as we know from the composer’s own recordings.
Ciccolini takes the Op. 12 No. 4 Elves’ Dance “Molto allegro” at a rabble-rousing “Moltissimo”, whacking the sforzandos for all they’re worth. He illuminates the dynamic contrasts in the Op. 38 No. 4 Norwegian Dance by supplementing Grieg’s marked ritards with his own, and quite convincingly. I’m less sold on an uncomfortably brusque, dry-eyed treatment of the Op. 43 No. 1 Butterfly that eschews the limpid grace most pianists favor. However, Ciccolini rightly refuses to turn the outer sections of the Op. 54 No. 3 March of the Trolls into a mad dash to the finish line, and he maintains a terse and steady tread in the cantible middle section.
While Ciccolini’s insightful rubatos and harmonic underpinnings bring welcome intensity to slower, more introspective selections, charm and sentiment play little part in this pianist’s conceptions. For example, bare melodic lines, such as in the opening measures of Op. 65 No. 3 Sadness, take on a foreboding, desolate hue that foreshadows late Liszt. When all is said and done, Ciccolini’s well-considered, often provocative interpretations reveal more about this undervalued repertoire than usually meets the ear. [6/2/2006]
