Try to imagine music in which Respighi’s peppery orchestral idiom (transcribed by Granados) defines the lush, sweeping sections and where Debussy makes an obvious presence in softer, lyrical passages. That’s a flashcard description of what Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s piano music sounds like, and Mark Bebbington has picked some of this composer’s most gorgeous, imaginative, and pianistically resourceful works for this well-rounded recital. The seven-part suite Le danze del Re David ranges from sardonic low-register march music and weeping melodies in octaves to huge chordal climaxes in cinemascope. Questo fu il carro della morte often reminds me of Debussy’s La cathédral engloutie, but with sultrier, sexier bell chords. Similarly, I Naviganti evokes the seascapes Rachmaninov charted in The Isle of the Dead, but in darker harmonic shades. Alt Wien’s wistful allusions to Straussian schlag are no more Viennese than Ravel’s cribbings for his better-known La Valse, and that’s a good thing. The aforementioned Respighi’s knack for gilding catchy tunes in brilliant, colorful dress without overdoing it finds its pianistic parallel in the five-part suite Piedigrotta.
I can’t speak too highly about Bebbington’s strong, big-boned playing and unerring ear for how these pieces should go. He takes the composer’s orchestral sonorities in comfortable stride, while at the same time enlivening the most delicate runs and softest chords with alluring nuance and color. While the engineering could use more weight and impact, the distant microphone placement conveys how Bebbington might project sound in a small concert hall. I hope Bebbington’s authoritative advocacy will inspire other pianists to investigate this unjustly neglected repertoire. Highly recommended. [2/11/2004]
