In 2005 Grotto Productions brought out a double album containing world-premiere recordings encompassing Paul Paray’s complete output for piano. I reviewed this release for Classicstoday.com, singling out the Brazilian-born pianist Flavio Varani’s masterful, passionate, and fervently committed interpretations for praise. The present disc contains Varani’s 2019 re-recordings for seven of the pieces.
Varani’s musicianship remains stylistically on point and sensitive to Paray’s harmonic subtleties that evoke Franck, Dukas, Fauré, and Ibert. His tempos, however, have slowed down, while his technique is generally less incisive than before. Compare the supple crispness of Varani’s 2005 Tarantelle to this heavier-handed remake, or his more effortful finger-work now in the Thème et Variations’ faster movements, and you’ll hear what I mean.
On the other hand, Sur la mer’s undulating phrases and rippling arpeggios easily absorb Varani’s newfound spaciousness, while the pianist’s wistful and reflective reading of the Valse holds equal validity to its earlier and brisker counterpart. There’s no doubting Varani’s missionary zeal, and his desire to revisit these works on account of the Grotto release’s unavailability. However, the latter constitutes Varani’s real Paul Paray legacy, and deserves to be reissued.
