Testament restores two of Wanda Landowska’s most treasurable and long-out-of-print albums. One is a 1951 collection of Polish dances, originally titled “Landowska plays for Paderewski” and repackaged in 1965 as “Dances of Ancient Poland”. The second comprises 1946 recordings gathered on the 1957 release “A Treasury of Harpsichord Music”. The latter’s varying sound quality and occasional fade-ups on opening notes leads me to suspect that Testament’s transfer stems from an LP production master tape rather than the original lacquer sources. The 1951 sessions were taped in Landowska’s Lakeville, Connecticut home. Say what you will about the “inauthentic” registrations and huge sonorities of her custom-built Pleyel harpsichord: Landowska’s powerful rhythmic swagger and soaring accentuation communicate heartfelt authenticity in every bar.
The rumbling basses and hot-wired dotted rhythms of Oginski’s A minor Polonaise, for example, are guaranteed to knock you out of your listening chair, and ditto for the earthy swing of Landowska’s own Bourrée D’Auvergne No. 2 and her arrangement of the traditional wedding song “The Hop”. Whether Chopin’s C major Op. 56 No. 2 Mazurka should be played on a harpsichord or not doesn’t matter, because Landowska’s phrasing and instinctive inner rhythm surpass all piano performances I know of this composition. Her italicized 1946 remakes of Scarlatti’s D major L. 418 and D minor L. 423 differ from her faster, more direct earlier HMV versions, yet her shifting registrations and subtle legato articulation cast a hypnotic spell in Couperin’s Les Barricades Mistérieuses.
What extraordinary finger definition and textural clarity she brings to Handel’s Harmonious Blacksmith variations! What gorgeous, rippling sonorities she divines from the Bach-Vivaldi D major concerto’s rolled chords in the slow movement! Purists may scoff at the octave transpositions and unconventional gearshifts Landowska employs in Mozart’s Turkish March and D major Rondo K. 485, yet few have judged the D major Menuetto’s dissonances to such profound effect. Let’s hope that this welcome release signifies a comprehensive Landowska/RCA series from Testament, including her two piano Mozart LPs from the late 1950s that still await their first CD appearance. [1/10/2006]
