Piano music occupied Hans Gál (1890-1987) throughout his long life, and all of it is immediately appealing, harmonically ingenuous, extremely fluent, well crafted, and supremely laid out for the instrument. It takes a few hearings for Gál’s individual profile to completely manifest itself, and no doubt first time listeners will play the “sounds-like” game. The First Sonatine’s opening movement, for example, makes me think of what would have happened if Brahms had rewritten early Prokofiev. The second movement of the early Op. 24 Suite revels in the slinky chromaticism often linked to Korngold; its slow fourth movement’s brooding sonorities breathe the air of Nielsen; and the perky finale already reveals Gál’s fondness for rapid interval leaps and melodic displacements.
The 24 Preludes from 1960 showcase Gál’s wide-ranging facility for mood painting as well as his ability to pace and integrate these miniatures to serve a cumulative progression and larger-scale design.
Martin Jones’ sympathetic, sensitive, and technically adroit interpretations are easy to assimilate within Nimbus’ customary, distant-sounding “ambisonic” engineering aesthetic. It should be said that Nimbus faces strong competition from Avie’s three-CD complete Gál piano music edition, where Leon McCawley’s generally faster, more incisive performances benefit from superior sonics. Yet there’s something to be said for Jones’ weightier textures in certain slow movements, along with the lighter, suppler touch he brings to scattered Preludes, like the E major and C-sharp minor. In any event, it’s good that this repertoire is reaching more music lovers.
