The great British pianist Solomon ruled over his keyboard with iron hands clothed in mink gloves. Along with his refined technique and cultivated sonority, Solomon’s impeccable taste and forthright musicianship embraced the composer’s wishes with no hint of pedantry. Examples abound in this well-chosen anthology spanning the pianist’s recorded career. Solomon erects the Bach/Liszt A minor Prelude and Fugue from the ground up, letting the bass octaves proudly sing out. The pearly right-hand runs in Mozart’s K. 333 sonata (a previously unreleased BBC performance) virtually talk to you, and the Brahms Handel Variations flow with cogency, assurance, and ease of delivery. The pianist’s straightforward, unmannered way with Liszt and Chopin allows both composers’ radical harmonic language to speak eloquently for itself. In his justly celebrated 1952 traversal of Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata, Solomon fuses suavity and power as few other pianists have achieved in this sometimes intractable masterpiece, although his slow movement doesn’t boil over with the choked intensity of an Arrau or Schnabel. And Solomon certainly makes the final fugue sound easy to play, as he does with everything else. First-rate transfers further distinguish one of the finest volumes in Philips’ Great Pianists collection. [11/19/1999]
