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Orazio
Frugoni, piano Originally
released in 1952, issued as Vox LP PL7160
Download ID: 203000, 399316
(Duration 46'52")
No
14, 'Moonlight' in C sharp minor,
Op. 27 No. 2
No.
8, 'Pathétique' in C minor,
Op. 13
No.
23, 'Appassionata' in F minor,
Op. 57
Play
sample movement:
...direct,
sure and delicate playing gives his performances a vitality that
more celebrated executants often fail to achieve in these works...
the recording is flawless...
Sackville-West & Shaw-Taylor, The Record Guide, 1955 (Double-starred
recording)
It
seems almost pointless to introduce the three sonatas for piano that constitute
this recording - they are amongst the best known and well loved music
ever written. Indeed, it was only by chance that we even decided to listen
to the LP from which this restoration was made.
I
was making a rare visit to Peter Harrison's studio at disk2disc
(our communications are normally via telephone and e-mail) and we were
taking the opportunity to run through a batch of LPs together supplied
for remastering by Don Petter.
Peter
got as far as the Beethoven and said something along the lines of "the
last thing the world needs is another set of this lot!" - to
which I replied, "well let's at least give it a listen!"
So he slipped it out of the sleeve, gave it a quick dusting off, placed
it onto the turntable and lowered the stylus. I only wish I could have
recorded the sound of Peter's jaw dropping when the playing began!
I
know that Don's been itching to get this one restored for a long time
- it's one of those long-lost treasures that somehow has escaped reissue,
until now. Double-starred in The Record Guide in 1955, the authors'
comment pretty well sums up what you will hear:
"Among
the miscellaneous sonata records listed below we would direct attention
particularly to the Vox disc of the three popular 'named' sonatas - the
'Pathétique', the 'Moonlight' and the 'Appassionata', by the young
Swiss-American pianist Orazio Frugoni. His direct, sure and delicate playing
gives his performances a vitality that more celebrated executants often
fail to achieve in these works. We get, besides, a good deal of music
for our money, and the recording is flawless."
REVIEW
OF BEETHOVEN PIANO SONATAS Orazio Frugoni (1952)
Orazio
Frugoni occupied only a few decaying cells in my memory as
a long-time professor of piano at the Eastman School of Music.
I dimly remembered that these sonatas had been released on
VOX in the USA in the early 50's on an LP weighing about three
pounds, but remembered nothing about the performance. Like
Peter Harrison, I was tempted to give it a miss. After the
first movement of the "Moonlight", I was hooked.
Here was another case, like Kathleen Long, of an outstanding
pedagogue who was also a great artist, but did not pursue
a concert career.
Frugoni's
artistic temperament, at least in Beethoven, is very classical,
moderate, free of idiocyncracy, but none-the-less exciting.
A bit like Wilhelm Kempff, if you will.
In
the "Moonlight", the first movement casts its spell
over me anew. Th second movement sounds like more than an
interlude and the finale is enormously exciting, highly articulated
without banging. Wow, I love the "Moonlight" all
over again. The piano sound here and in the other two sonatas
is clear, pearly and powerful.
The
"Pathetique" first movement is exciting, but the
"crack of doom/cheap thrills" way of playing the
opening chords and the allegro has no place here. This is
not Liszt. This was a ground-breaking work. Moscheles remembered
when he was 8 years old and living with his teacher that he
was forbidden to practice this work. So he would take a small
candle and try to memorize the score in bed. Perhaps the teacher
might have approved of Frugoni's performance. I always dread
that moment, when after the exposition has been repeated and
the development played when the recapititulation comes and
Beethoven seems suddenly at a loss for what to do and just
goes on and repeats the broken chords of the allegro that
we have heard so many times. Well, Frugoni almost gets me
through it.
The
second movement is almost too austere, but at least it doesn't
remind me of the theme music introduction to Karl Haas "Adventures
in Good Music", a program which may have contributed
to the decline of classical music in the United States. The
finale, usually a bit of an anti-climax, ends up being the
most exciting movement of all, taken a a rip-roaring pace.
The
"Appasionata" is very well played, but perhaps a
little too controlled. The first movement is very clean and
free of rhetorical banging. The final presto of the movement
is very exciting but not a scramble. The second movement variations,
not one of Beethoven's most inspired sets, held my interest
throughout due to Frugoni's beautiful tone and the pellucid
restoration of the sound. The finale is very well articulated--not
a note out of place. Frugoni hardly breaks a sweat--and that
is a problem in the finale. One does need just a little bit
of broken glass here, doesn't one?
Overall,
a forgotten, but near great, Italian-Swiss-American pedagogue
and artist brought wonderfully back to life with something
to say worth hearing in three overfamiliar Beethoven works.
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...direct,
sure and delicate playing gives his performances a vitality that
more celebrated executants often fail to achieve in these works...
the recording is flawless...
