A pupil of the late, vastly underrated Romanian pianist Mindru Katz, Israeli-born Mordecai Shehori, now in his early 50s, has been a fixture on the New York piano scene for more than two decades. Some listeners admire Shehori for his freewheeling approach to the composer’s text, while others find him self-indulgent and at times eccentric in his interpretations. He basically behaves himself throughout this compilation culled from a 1977 Alice Tully Hall recital, although the close-up recording can’t quite digest the pianist’s booming left hand octaves that propel Brahms’ F minor Sonata into supersonic regions avoided by other pianists. I’m reminded of the young Julius Katchen’s similarly unfettered Brahms F minor (Philips), that boasts more respose and singing tone in the slow movement. Chopin’s F major (Op. 15 No. 1) and B major (Op. 9 No. 3) get intense, well-articulated readings, as does Shehori’s febrile C-sharp minor Scherzo. The pianist’s push-pull energies leave Ravel’s Gaspard de la Nuit with an unsettled taste, missing the color and rock-steady control of Michelangeli’s unique version (Philips), or the diabolic edge of the Argerich and Pogorelich recordings. The recordings resemble good, semi-professional archival tapings and can’t really compete, sonically speaking, with the best-engineered versions of these works on the market. Piano specialists, though, who collect multiple versions of the Brahms will want to add this one to their larder.
