Taiwanese pianist Jenny Lin’s discography to date shows just how difficult it is for a talented young pianist to gain recognition in today’s glutted performing arts marketplace. She has made excellent recordings for Koch, BIS, and now Hänssler, including discs devoted to modern “niche” composers (Ruth Crawford Seeger, Valentin Silvestrov) and to some very clever “interesting repertoire” collections (“Chinoiserie”, “Preludes to a Revolution”). Her complete Bloch music for piano and orchestra easily is (pianistically at least) the best collection of that music currently available. These recordings show that she has it all: intelligence, technique, imagination, curiosity, expressive intensity, and a willingness to take risks.
So if there’s any justice in the musical world, this Shostakovich recording ought to be a “breakout” release. It’s a particularly smart repertoire choice: a 20th-century keyboard masterpiece that has not been over-recorded but has enjoyed some very distinguished advocacy, mostly from Russian pianists–Tatiana Nikolayeva, Vladimir Ashkenazy, and above all, Konstantin Scherbakov, whose superb Naxos recording is the one to beat. Lin does just that, turning in what is hands down the finest version of this massive work yet recorded–a brilliant, moody, energetic, edgy, and technically stunning exploration of Shostakovich’s compositional genius.
There are so many highlights that it’s impossible to list them all, but here are a few of the most noteworthy: First there’s Lin’s amazingly clean fingerwork in the A minor and C minor preludes, and in the witty G major fugue. The A major fugue, so difficult to phrase cleanly because its simple arpeggio head motive resists contrapuntal elaboration, has all the freshness of a spring day. It truly dances, and never has been played better. Lin also finds a perfect, flowing tempo for the F-sharp minor fugue, one of the toughest in the entire set owing to its length and brooding glumness.
Despite the remarkable clarity of counterpoint in the fugues, and the pointillistic accuracy of Lin’s technique in this often sharp-edged and brittle music, she’s acutely sensitive to texture and atmosphere where Shostakovich demands it: witness the impressionistically dreamy E major, B-flat minor, and the evocatively-pedalled E minor and G minor preludes. The D-flat major prelude’s scherzo/trio has more gruff Russian humor than the Russians often bring to it, owing to Lin’s aptly heavy left hand in the scherzo and pitch-perfect delicacy in the trio. The entire performance builds to an effortlessly majestic and satisfying conclusion in the D minor fugue, a climax achieved as much through ideal pacing and control of dynamics as through expressive mannerisms.
Hänssler’s engineers have captured Lin’s piano with remarkable fidelity, particularly the rich bass register that so nicely contrasts with a slightly “twangy” treble. Having listened to this set several times, on several systems (including my iPod on a flight to Europe), there is no question that this release represents a major statement by an artist who deserves far more acclaim than she has received to date. Lin has paid her dues, and it’s high time that she be let in from the cold of contemporary music recitals and unusual repertoire collections (which, let’s face it, few people care about), so that we can hear what she has to say in the classics of the keyboard literature. On evidence here, she’s more than up to the challenge. Hopefully Hänssler is listening. [4/27/2009]
