Pianist James Rhodes’ punk-rock persona and harrowing back story is the stuff of classical music marketers’ dreams, as is this recital’s title. Fortunately, Rhodes plays beautifully and intelligently–perhaps a little too intelligently for his own good, such as in his slightly mannered phrasing of the Bach C major fugue exposition, overly rhapsodic dispatch of the Beethoven Op. 109 first movement (followed by a wild, nearly slapdash second movement), and sometimes flippantly detached treatment of the E minor Partita’s passagework. However, Op. 109’s third-movement variations unfold to assiduously hypnotic effect, highlighted by gorgeous trills and unorthodox yet riveting articulation in the fifth variation.
Rhodes’ elegant, expressive legato alone justifies his ruminating over the Bach slow movements and the Marcello transcriptions, and he clearly spells out every note in the Chopin Etude’s arpeggios without sacrificing one iota of power and sweep–a feat not easily managed. Beyond Rhodes’ bleak and austere surface in the Chopin E minor Prelude lies subtle timing and a three-dimensional melody/accompaniment perspective.
Bonus interview tracks reveal Rhodes as an articulate and thoughtful spokesperson for the works he plays, with no expletives deleted, so to speak. In short, James Rhodes may be a maverick to his fans and publicists, yet to my ears he’s a gifted, communicative, and highly musical pianist whose artistry speaks well enough for itself.
