mobanmarketWhy the title, “Prokofiev for Two and a Half,” for a Deutsche Grammophon recording on which Martha Argerich and Sergei Babayan play Babayan’s two-piano transcriptions of music from Prokofiev’s ballet Romeo & Juliet and four of his operas? Because any recording that features the outsized pianism of the great Argerich immediately becomes one of extraordinary importance for artistic resources that are inherently doubled by at least 50%.
Okay. I may have engaged in a bit of hyperbole here. But the importance of Prokofiev for Two is highlighted by the fact that DG has released it in three formats: CD, vinyl, and digital hi-rez. Auditioned in 24/44.1 file format, courtesy of Universal Music Group, it is such a musical knockout—just listen to the opening “Prologue” (mistitled) on the YouTube link below—that the recording’s sonic shortcomings should stop no one who loves this music from going to their favorite outlet and grabbing a copy.
Let’s deal with those shortcomings first. How much the sampling rate of 44.1kHz is responsible for this effort’s disappointingly narrow soundstage and lack of depth and resonance, I do not know. What is incontrovertible, however, is that Murray Perahia’s recent Beethoven recital on DG, which was recorded in a different venue than Prokofiev for Two‘s Schloss Elmau, offers a far larger soundstage and more resonant acoustic. This new recording also lacks the left/right two piano spacing, air, distance, and subtle colors that distinguish Marc-André Hamelin and Leif Ove Andsnes’s recent four-hand recording for Hyperion of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring.
If you can move beyond all that, however, what Prokofiev for Two offers in terms of realistic piano tone, dynamic range, and emotional swings is tremendous. You just have to accept how incessantly percussive these tour-de-force piano transcriptions can be.
If the ballet’s Prologue isn’t enough to convince you of Argerich & Babayan’s collective brilliance, check out the immense authority and dynamic contrasts of “Dance of the Knights;” the conflicting emotions of “Morning Dance,” the delightfully happy scampering of “Juliet as a Young Girl,” the charming delicacy, grace, and captivating sweetness of “Morning Serenade,” the madcap “Dance of Five Couples,” the sweet sadness and eventual drama of “Romeo and Juliet Before Departure,” and the hyper-dramatic concluding “Death of Tybalt.”
That final movement includes runs so fast that many a pianist, both major and aspiring, may hyperventilate while pondering how anyone could play like this. The movement’s four-minutes includes violent clashes that are conveyed in truly horrible blocks of sound. Argerich and Babayan pound so hard that, seated on a vintage, spring-supported couch 12′ away, I could literally feel the vibrations through the multiple-LP–sized box that I use as a makeshift desk while taking notes.
Just as you think that Argerich & Babayan have reached their technical limits, they grow even louder at the movement’s close. OMG and then some.
Truth be told, as lovely as much of Prokofiev’s music can be, he is not a composer known for his subtlety and restraint. Some years back, when I attended a week-long Prokofiev Festival at San Francisco Symphony where Vladimir Feltsman and perhaps others played all of Prokofiev’s five Piano Concertos, I had so many notes thrown at me with such rapidity that I was ready to wave the white flag. You may thus wish to take a break before partaking in four-hand transcriptions of music from Eugene Onegin, Hamlet, The Queen of Spades, and War and Peace.
Once you’ve come up for air, however, don’t miss the low racket in “The Ghost of Hamlet’s Father.” Listening made me wonder if either Argerich or Babayan wore earplugs during the recording session. Thank goodness, the subsequent Mazurka is lovely, and the Polka madcap in a most enjoyable sense. When you get to the end of the Polonaise, listen for the “whew” exhalation, presumably from one of the artists, as the music dies down.
The concluding “Idée fixe” from the Film Music to The Queen of Spades is alternately crazy, adorable, and a tease and a half. It’s a perfect close to a recording that will either leave you staggering, or cheering, or both.
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