When the elflike yet compact figure of Shura Cherkassky bounded across the stage and took his seat at the piano, no one knew what to expect. He could give both screwy and magnificent performances back to back, pulling Chopin’s rubatos like endless taffy, or else playing Stockhausen’s Klavierstucke IX as straight as a tack. And so it goes with the mercurial pianist’s Nimbus recordings, gathered here complete save for several analog LPs-worth of material still awaiting CD reissue. Among the gems here are Cherkassky’s imaginative, firmly etched Schumann Symphonic Etudes and Kreisleriana, his freewheelingly coherent Liszt and Chopin B minor Sonatas, a leisurely, classically proportioned Stravinsky Three Movements from Petrushka, the ravishingly voiced Messiaen Ile de Feu 1 & 2, and Leonard Bernstein’s Touches. Cherkassky’s liquid-toned, intimately scaled conceptions uncover new meanings in the Bach-Busoni Chaconne, Franck Prelude, Chorale, & Fugue, Grieg Sonata, and Chopin Andante Spianato & Grande Polonaise. Conversely, his accounts of Schubert’s E-flat and G-flat Impromptus and A major Sonata (D. 664) trvialize important details. A memory lapse near the end of the Brahms Paganini Variations should have been detected and redone. Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, though, is expertly paced and bristling with character. The pianist’s headlong, nervous energy in the Berg Sonata makes a fascinating foil to Glenn Gould’s chaster, more ruminative version. Lastly, Cherkassky serves up tributes to his youth mentors with Chasins’ once-popular Rush Hour in Hong Kong, Josef Hofmann’s sparkling Kaleidoscope, and Godowsky’s serpentine elaboration on Strauss’s Wine, Women, and Song (the latter slightly cut). Nimbus’ patented “ambiosonic” miking sometimes lacks focus and body, yet conveys a semblance of Cherkassky’s golden sound as heard from a decent balcony seat. The cost of this seven-disc set equals a bit less than two full priced CDs. If you love the piano, go for it.
