Aside from the fact that all of the works on this CD are transcriptions, they add up to an oddly balanced program, and are best sampled one or two selections at a time rather than in a single bound. That said, there’s much to glean from Gabriela Imreh’s solid technique and musicianship. In the Tausig/Bach D minor Toccata & Fugue and Bauer/Franck Prelude, Fugue and Variation, Imreh downplays the transcribers’ full-bodied attempts at organ replication, emphasizing line over mass. She conveys enough textural differentiation in the Liszt Totentanz to evoke the work’s original concerto incarnation, with piano and orchestra battling it out, albeit without the demonic edge and surface bravura distinguishing Arnaldo Cohen’s memorable Naxos recording. Her clear-cut and well controlled readings of Rachmaninov’s delectable Kreisler transformations (the Liebeslied and Liebesfreud) contrast to the transcriber’s more angular, scintillating pianism and, among modern recordings, Yevgeny Sudbin’s more subjective, individual profile. Perhaps the Kocsis/Rachmaninov Vocalise best showcases Imreh’s innate lyric gifts and sensitivity.
Imreh concludes her program with 12 selections from Gershwin’s Songbook. While I prefer these transcriptions played with more idiomatic brashness and rhythmic dash than Imreh’s well-groomed interpretations deliver, she certainly knows what she’s up to. True, she doesn’t entirely avoid those transitional ritards and arch rubatos so many “legit” pianists deem necessary for making Gershwin sound like Chopin, but that’s par for the course. Max Wilcox’s warm, realistic production and the pianist’s extensive, excellent booklet notes add value to this release.
