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Date:
Sat, 20 Oct 2001 09:18:05 -0700
Subject:
From:
Michael Cooper <[log in to unmask]>
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There is apparently at least two CDs with Marita Viitasalo on the Finlandia
label; I have an excellent one which has only short pieces.  Her tone
and interpretation makes me think of Leonskaja.  Cherkassky (and other
pianists, I am told) would play the Romance in D-flat opus 20 #9 as an
encore piece.

Glenn Gould recorded the Kylikki (spelling?), a recording which is
available on Sony coupled with some Grieg.  I don't find these pieces
to be as interesting as his stand-alone miniatures that I have heard.

Many of the pieces seem to be largely imitative, of Schubert or Mendelssohn
or Schuman for example, yet hints and sometimes more-than-hints of the
darker orchestral Sibelius show through, such as in the Barcarolle.

All in all I think Sibelius' piano piano is under-rated and deserves more
attention.  Perhaps if it had received more attention by pianists during
his lifetime, he might have delved more deeply into the larger forms, and
been more successful in them as well.  Then again, although it is unlikely,
perhaps some larger piano works did disappear in those Jarvenpaa bonfires,
in his last 30 years.  Alas, no one can say.

Michael Cooper

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