Oeuvres pour piano

Description

Farewell concert, hello studio: here is the Bach recital Tatiana Nikolayeva recorded in 1980 once again. It opens with an Italian Concerto that is more restrained than radiant, where the pianist does not immediately find her bell-like tones, her echoing polyphonies that suddenly burst forth in the Toccata and Fugue in D minor, where Busoni draws an entire orchestra from the keyboard: here is Nikolayeva in her element, as in the richly shaped counter-melodies of Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring, in every way the opposite of Dinu Lipatti’s legato, and a true church chorale. The intimate, murmured Bach suits her perfectly; the weightless poise of her touch in the Siciliana, gilded by Wilhelm Kempff, or in the subtle cantabile of Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme are as marvelous as her sense of ardent rhetoric in a Chaconne where tone is everything, exactly as Busoni expressly intended. An immense Bach disc, though in the past there have been more carefully produced editions (Discophilia - Artalinna.com). (Jean-Charles Hoffelé)