As with his two earlier EMI releases devoted to Rachmaninov and Chopin, Simon Trpceski’s all-Debussy recital attests to the young artist’s strong pianistic presence and evolving musicianship. He plays the two Arabesques with charm and affection, if not quite matching Zoltan Kocsis for directness (No. 1) and breezy scintillation (No. 2). Although Trpceski’s highly detailed articulation and characterful color sometimes threatens to transform The Children’s Corner into The Adolescent Hangout (the Golliwogg’s Cake-walk’s overly fanciful tempo modifications, for example), his subtle accentuations and shifts of emphasis in The Snow Is Dancing creates a sound world that evokes the phase shifting techniques that Steve Reich and John Adams would make famous more than half a century later. It totally convinces.
Although Trpceski clearly understands the Images from the vantage point of nuance, tonal application, and textural control (best of all in his skittish Poissons D’or ), small yet not insignificant miscalculations should be noted. The heated intensity of Reflets dans l’eau’s climaxes seems artificially superimposed rather than growing out of what came before. Similarly, Trpceski’s minuscule rushing of Mouvement’s loud descending tune (at about 30 seconds into the piece and elsewhere) nearly dissipates the cumulative impact of the long, motoric build-up that precedes it. I also don’t buy his gratuitous modifications of pulse in Cloches À Travers Les Feuilles. As for L’Isle joyeuse, I prefer the Lisztian glitter of Jean-Efflam Bavouzet’s dance-oriented melodic pointing and firmly etched bass lines to Trpceski’s more tapered phrasing. On the other hand, Trpceski proves how you can play Clair de lune in strict time and still create a spacious, atmospheric aura. The mellow, slightly murky patina of EMI’s sonics serves Trpceski well, though not ideally in this repertoire.
