For her solo-CD debut, South African pianist Petronel Malan offers an auspicious program encompassing Ignaz Friedman’s Bach transcriptions, along with world-premiere recordings of the F major Pastorale transcribed by Dinu Lipatti and Bartók’s piano treatment of the G major trio sonata. As a rule, Bach piano arrangements reveal more about the transcriber than the transcribee, and such is the case with the legendary virtuoso Ignaz Friedman. Few pianists handled double notes so effortlessly as Friedman, and his transcriptions abound with thirds and sixths that leap back and forth from register to register. Consequently, his version of the ubiquitous D minor Toccata and Fugue is less orchestral in effect than Busoni’s better-known transcription–yet it’s more inherently pianistic.
Friedman’s challenges hardly faze Malan’s well-schooled fingers. She makes more of local details than Piers Lane on Hyperion, notably in her fondness for tapering phrase endings and uncovering inner voices, as in the various choral preludes. On the other hand, continuous thick textures in works such as the Bourée and the Third Brandenburg transcription lack Lane’s firmness of tone, fluidity of line, and rock-solid accuracy. The Lipatti and Bartók transcriptions are less garish than Friedman’s in terms of style and keyboard deployment, and they inspire Malan’s most relaxed and colorful playing.
I wonder if the flinty tone at loud moments has to do with Malan or the engineering, although you can still appreciate the clear and plangent timbres of the Blüthner piano she uses (Friedman loved Blüthners too). One small error: the title listings claim the second “Morgenlied” transcription to be a disc premiere: they mean the first version instead.
