The special atmosphere pianist Rebecca Penneys enjoys during her summer residencies as chair of the Chautauqua Institution Piano Department clearly manifests itself throughout this recital. Certainly her disastrous Chopin Etudes (Centaur) and indulgent Brahms Hungarian Dances (also on Fleur De Son Classics) hardly prepared me for the beauty, color, control, and finesse that distinguishes her best work here. Even when Penneys feels impelled to rush through music that should be savored (the Mozart sonata’s outer movements, much of the Polonaise-Fantasie, and the Suite Bergamasque’s Prélude), her crystalline articulation saves the day, especially her fantastic trills.
Penneys brings a restless, Horowitzian type of rubato to the Chopin Mazurka group, allowing her to uncover inner voices of both the genuine and manufactured ilk. While she doesn’t project the full dynamic spectrum Bartók asks for in his Hungarian Peasant Songs, her rounded tone and innate lyricism refreshingly contrast to the percussive approach many pianists deem necessary for this repertoire. Next to Van Cliburn’s poised textural unraveling of the Schumann-Liszt Widmung (titled Liebeslied here), Penneys works too hard at conveying expressive points. Yet she tosses off Frühlingsnacht’s taxing repeated notes with effortless delicacy. And the pianist serves up the Bolcom and Albright rags to delicious, idiomatic effect, keeping the bass lines steady and swinging. If Penneys ever decides to take up Scott Joplin, or explore stride piano, I’ll be there. In all, a worthwhile release.
