All nine Beethoven/Liszt symphony transcriptions are difficult to play. The most difficult one? That’s hard to say, although experts in the field waver between the Ninth and the Seventh. In particular, the latter’s outer movements’ knotty textures and churning momentum cruelly test one’s stamina. Notwithstanding Konstantin Scherbakov’s unquestionably proficient technique, his interpretation only partially satisfies. To his credit, he nails the finale’s relentless dotted rhythms with uncommon exactitude and hardly any compromise in regard to the rather optimistic metronome markings. But sometimes he misses the forest for the trees.
For example, the pianist overpoints the first-movement introduction’s staccato 16th-note scales to the extent that they pull focus from the longer half-note melody lines into which they’re intended to connect. Similarly, he lays on the main section’s motto rhythm, bogs it down, and drains it of lilt and life. In this sense it’s good that he doesn’t opt for the exposition repeat observed by Leslie Howard and Cyrpien Katsaris. Scherbakov also makes a clipped, choppy impression in the Scherzo’s “A” section, sacrificing tone and articulation for speed–a marked contrast to Howard’s more fluid pianism.
Scherbakov fares much better in the Eighth, where his tasteful modifications, whimsical phrasings, and detailed inner counterpoints fit hand in glove with the music’s brash humor without resorting to Katsaris’ textural emendations. In all, this release concludes an uneven Beethoven/Liszt cycle whose finest performances (the Second, Fourth, Fifth, and Eighth) nevertheless successfully stare down the competition.
