Given the unusually robust and lifelike sonic values of previous Blue Griffin piano CDs, the present disc’s murky, hollow-bodied engineering comes as a shock. It’s as if we’re listening to an early tape-based, mid-1940s German Radio broadcast rather than a 2015 digital recording.
The sonics only blunt the impact of Iskander Zakirov’s heavy textures and overly loud execution throughout the Schumann C major Fantasy’s first two movements. The lyrical third movement, however, benefits from more transparent and sensitive playing all around. But what you want this disc for is Zakirov’s masterful performances of ten Brahms intermezzi.
The Op. 119 No. 1 is more animated and malleable than usual, with ravishing inner voices and cross-rhythmic linear interplay gently dismantling the composer’s bar lines. By contrast, the pianist’s deliberately-wrought Op. 76 No. 3 brings the delicate arpeggiated left hand accompaniment to the fore, letting the right hand’s music box-like melodies float in slow motion.
At first Zakirov’s improvisatory speed-ups and slow-downs in Op. 117 No. 2 might seem slapdash and strummed through, yet an inner logic emerges that is analogous to an actor appearing to throw away his or her lines. On the other hand, Zakirov truly savors the implicit gravitas in Op. 116’s three-against-two figurations, while the rapt rumination and lingering transitions in Op. 117 No. 1 and Op. 118 No. 2 quickly lodge in your memory. My artistic rating splits the difference between the Brahms (a solid 10) and the Schumann (either a high 6 or a low 7). Too bad about the cruddy sound, for the Brahms performances are keepers, every one of them.
