I gather that this oddly programmed double album consists of live performances, judging by the smattering of applause after each disc’s final selection. Disc 1 contains Schubert’s D. 935 Impromptus, followed by a half-dozen selections each from Debussy’s Préludes Books 1 and 2. Disc 2 begins with 14 Erik Satie miniatures, continues with Luciano Berio’s Sequenza IV, and ends with six encore-length Berio compositions. Frankly, I cannot work up any enthusiasm for pianist Michal Tal’s heavily accented, monochrome, and lyrically dead Schubert playing, nor for her microscopic, flabby sense of detail and jackhammer touch in Debussy (look no further if you want to hear the worst recording ever made of “Minstrels” from Preludes Book 1).
However, Tal’s tone blossoms and her rhythm considerably firms up for the Satie selections. For example, she captures the first Description Automatique’s tango-tinged music box subtext with an appropriately dry demeanor and marvelous tonal gradations in the right-hand filigree.
Tal’s technique gains considerable suppleness and flexibility in the Berio pieces, along with levels of tonal differentiation and textural control I never would have suspected based on her Schubert and Debussy. Notice Tal’s poise and precise layering of Luftklavier’s persistent ostinatos and trills, or her mastery of the elaborate pedaling and her careful articulation throughout Sequenza IV. The qualities come across despite drab engineering and a less than first-rate piano. My overall artistic rating, therefore, splits the difference between zero for Disc 1 and nine for Disc 2.
