Pianist Lubka Kolessa was born in Galacia in 1902 and studied with the noted Liszt pupils Eugen D’Albert and Emil von Sauer. During the war years she settled in Canada where she performed and taught until her death in 1997. Her name is likely to be known only to a handful of piano mavens, or to collectors who may have encountered an LP reissue of her 1939 Beethoven Third Concerto with Karl Böhm and the Dresden Staatskapelle. The Beethoven leads off the first of the three CDs in Doremi’s Kolessa compilation. Her freedom vis-à-vis Beethoven’s abrupt dynamic shifts and specific accentuation contrasts with Artur Schnabel’s stylish profile and angular concentration. Hummel’s once popular E-flat Rondo filled out the original 78-rpm set, and it literally dances off the faded pages. Strong, colorful fingerwork distinguishes Kolessa’s vigorous but stylistically anachronistic 1936 Mozart C minor concerto broadcast, with Max Fiedler (a close associate of Brahms) conducting the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Disc two focuses on the pianist’s issued Electrola and Ultraphon pre-war solo 78s, along with three unissued test pressings from these years. My favorites of these are two gorgeously shaded Scarlatti Sonatas (C major L. 104 and B-flat major L. 396), an elegant and charming reading of Mozart’s Variations on a theme of Gluck K. 455, and the bracing Chopin A-flat Waltz Op. 42. I find Kolessa’s Chopin Mazurka selections less convincing, where her salon rubatos and uneventful left hand patterns trivialize the music’s earthy modality and dance-like impulses. In fairness, two of the Mazurkas were rejected by the artist for release, and so was her facile but characterless Schulz-Eveler transcription of Johann Strauss, Jr.’s Blue Danube. Skip over three Etudes from Chopin’s Op. 25 group (Nos. 1, 2 and 9) and the Liszt 12th Hungarian Rhapsody, all stemming from poor sounding private recordings, and not properly pitched. Jacob Harnoy’s transfers are true to timbre, yet filtered to excess for my taste. Contrast Harnoy’s work with Ward Martson’s noisier but more impactive transfer for the aforementioned Mozart concerto, and you’ll hear what I mean.
On the other hand, Kolessa’s rare 1949 Concert Hall LPs sound newly-minted as transferred on Disc Three. The Schumann Symphonic Etudes are interesting for the pianist’s unusual ordering of variations, which incorporate more of the composer’s alternate movements than most conventional readings. Despite moments of genuine insight and lyrical repose, Kolessa often lets the rhythm go slack, and the cumulative impact of Schumann’s obsessive dotted patterns falls by the wayside. The treacherous Toccata (shorn of its repeat) gets better as it goes along, especially in the note-gobbling climactic pages, yet pales next to the authority of the François, Richter, and stereo Horowitz versions. While Solomon, Petri, Arrau, and (believe it or not) Tureck bring more power and architectural backbone to Brahms’ mighty Handel Variations, Kolessa reveals a greater command of the writing here than in the Schumann selections. The relatively modest demands of Brahms’ E-flat and C major Intermezzi Op. 117 elicit gracefully drawn readings that bring this uneven but fascinating collection to a close.
