Joplin: Piano Rags Alexander Peskanov, piano Naxos 8.559114 1/5 stars This Won't Do! Call me a purist, but Alexander Peskanov's presentation with Joplin's classics is wayward and self-indulgent. He disregards Joplin's own tempo indications in ways that beggar the imagination. The first band, 'Maple Leaf Rag,' Joplin's most popular composition (at least it was before the explosive popularity of 'The Entertainers' after the movie 'The Sting') is played lickety-split in spite of Joplin's clear indication 'Tempo di marcia' and his well-known concern that his music not be played too fast. It's hard to imagine anyone being able to march to Peskanov's tempi, which I calculate to be about quarter note = 180. Add to that Peskanov's arbitrary use of right-hand tremolos, unwritten grace notes, blind octaves, and strange and sudden Rossinian accelerandos and crescendos towards the ends of some pieces (I guess he was trying an exciting finish), you have clear indication that Peskanov is indulging his own fancies. Then there are the odd variations in dynamics, going from hushed pps to marcato ffs without any such indication whatever in the score. When he plays the softer and lazier pieces, like 'Heliotrope Bouquet,' he pushes and pulls both the tempi and the dynamics enough to make you pull your hair, even as you are admiring his ability to give nuance (if that's what it is; sometimes it comes across as swooning and mooning) to these basically pretty straightforward pieces. Make no mistake, Mr Peskanov is a virtuoso pianist, but he doesn't understand Joplin's style at all. Further, he treats the composer's clear intentions with disrespect. I suppose he thinks he knows better than the composer. My favorite Joplin rag, one that I've performed many times, is 'Pine Apple Rag.' He plays it too fast in spite of the clear indication marked off in a black-bordered box at the top of the score: "NOTE: Do not play this piece fast. [signed] Composer." Peskanov adds unwritten accents, walking broken-octave basses, abruptly terraced dynamics, rolled chords not in the score. This is only one example out of this 65 minute disc. There are many others. My own feeling is that if an American pianist did to Rachmaninov what this Russian pianist does to Joplin, Russian music-lovers would be outraged. Avoid this one unless you simply don't care about fidelity to Joplin's own clearly indicated intentions. Review at amazon.com at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0002BXOFA/classicalnetA/ Scott Morrison