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Fanfare

James W. Iman, in his intelligent program notes to this disc, writes: “The predictability of technical conventions across style periods” was what “Schoenberg would strip away in his Drei Klavierstiicke, Op. 11, and it is for this reason that, while not virtuosic in the usual sense, these pieces are decidedly uncomfortable to play.” One would never guess that from this listener-friendly performance, filled with warmth and color, on a superbly recorded Steinway & Sons Model D.

Composers’ reputations tend to either soar or plummet upon their deaths; Bartok’s soared; Boulez’s plummeted. His piano sonatas, once highly admired by the cognoscenti, now seem empty vessels; carefully calculated notes, set amid meaningless silences, feel almost random. Iman obviously thinks differently and struggles to bring the music to life. There are similar moments in Webern’s late Variations, but there they seem to make sense.  What’s the difference? Webern’s music has a personality lacking in Boulez’s, perhaps because Webern had more natural formal instincts, so he didn’t have to rely on number-crunching in composition. I believe Iman feels the differences, as his Webern sails easily along, whereas his Boulez fights an uphill battle.

Gilbert Any (b.1936) studied with Messiaen and Milhaud; his early Piano Sonata (c.1956-59) owes much to Boulez’s Second and Third Sonatas. Iman calls Amy’s sonata “the most substantial response” to Boulez’s Third; it goes even deeper down Alice’s rabbit hole. The second movement may be played as (only) one of six different pieces beginning at any point in the score. Hooray! Perhaps this hadn’t; been done before? This is the recorded premiere of Amy’s sonata; had it come 60 years ago, it might have been deemed important, as might the entire disc.