As First Prize winner in the 2005 International Frédéric Chopin Piano Competition, Rafal Blechacz follows in a line distinguished by the likes of Yundi Li, Krystian Zimerman, Garrick Ohlsson, Martha Argerich, and Maurizio Pollini. Will he eventually attain their international stature? That’s a question this recital disc cannot answer, although it’s clear that the pianist commands a warm sound and solid technique, along with a sincere desire to channel the latter toward musical ends.
These virtues work in tandem to produce a lyrically flexible and texturally diverse Schumann G minor sonata that ranks among the work’s finest recorded versions. Three Liszt concert etudes follow, and we can hope that Blechacz’s limpid, aristocratic Waldesrauschen eventually will shed its tendency toward square phrasing and acquire more of the long-lined shimmer associated with Arrau and Bolet. In Gnomenreigen, Blechacz imposes tiny yet poorly judged caesuras that divert the music’s organic flow. Blechacz likes his La Leggierezza moderate and subdued, but at least it’s suppler and more forward moving than most modern versions, until the enervated final minute and a half.
Debussy’s Suite Bergamasque lacks the transluscent hues and harmonic awareness I enjoy from more stylistically apt interpretations. Similarly, Blechacz’s fine account of Szymanowski’s Op. 3 Variations doesn’t quite attain Martin Roscoe’s characterful variety, although the power and intensity he brings to the Brahmsian finale makes me want to hear him in, you guessed it, Brahms. The concluding Chopin A-flat Polonaise gets a surprisingly bland reading that lacks thrust and rhythmic swagger (the careful, tinkly upward scales, for example)–not at all what you’d expect from a Chopin Competition victor. In all, this disc promises more than it delivers, but the Schumann G minor definitely is a keeper.
