In 2012 Orchid Classics released an imaginative coupling of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 and Kuhlau’s Piano Concerto Op. 7, where the Armenian-born pianist Marianna Shirinyan’s scintillating virtuosity impressed me very much. Her Chopin Ballades and Scherzos are less consistent overall, yet contain much to admire.
Shirinyan inflects the opening sections of the first two Ballades with rhetorical leeway, while articulating agitato passages so that one can account for all of the notes, yet without sacrificing forward momentum. This approach lends nobility to the Third Ballade, yet sometimes proves discontinuous in No. 4, where the pianist’s rubatos are often less expressive than lily gilding.
Shirinyan prolongs each of the Scherzo No. 1’s two introductory chords to kingdom come, yet takes the vertiginous main theme at a dizzying clip. Thankfully her slow and flexible central “Sleep, My Jesus” Trio holds together; way too many pianists truly fall asleep here! Her tempos for the Second Scherzo’s outer sections, however, never quite settle, on account of the pianist’s twitchy elongations and accelerandos.
Shirinyan takes her time over the Third Scherzo’s introduction, and although her octaves don’t match Argerich for febrile power, the coda features more left-hand detail than what we usually hear. Her Fourth Scherzo fares best in the lyrical B major trio, while she treads capably yet cautiously through the principal E major section: Here I miss the quicksilver nimbleness of Ashkenazy, Kissin, Richter, Grosvenor, Yundi Li, and, more recently, Seong-Jin Cho. Fine annotations and sonics. In all, the first three Ballades plus Scherzos Nos. 1 and 3 are this release’s keepers.
