To recap, I reviewed ten versions of Kinderszenen in Part 1.  That was
quite a line-up of artists, and I found all the versions excepting for
the one from Ruth Slenczysaka to be excellent or better.  For Part 2,
the following seven offerings are:

Vladimir Ashkenazy...London 421290(1988)
Daniel Bulmenthal....Calliope 9271(1995)
Ethella Chuprik......Amadis 7127(1993)
Clifford Curzon......Decca 466498(1954)
Maryla Jonas.........Pearl 0077(1948)
Ronan O'Hora.........Tring International 078(1995)
Cristina Ortiz.......MCA 25234(1988)

Of course, Ashkenazy and Curzon are highly esteemed pianists.  Blumenthal,
O'Hora, and Ortiz have much smaller reputations, and I've never heard of
Chuprik before finding this Amadis disc which is connected with HNH
International.

Maryla Jonas has a reputation but at the same time is hardly known by most
classical music enthusiasts.  She was born in Warsaw in 1911 and made her
official public debut at the age of nine.  Her career was moving forward
splendidly until the Germans invaded Poland in 1939.  She was rounded up
by the Germans who made her a generous offer:  perform in Germany and live
free.  Jonas said "No" and spent the next seven months in prison.  On her
release, she walked from Cracow to Berlin and eventually, helped by Artur
Rubinstein, she made her way to South America.  Jonas settled in the New
York area in the late 1940's and died in 1959, two years short of her
fiftieth birthday.  She never totally recovered from the loss of her
native home and family, but Pearl obviously considers her artistry of
a high level and worthy of an historical recording.

The couplings on the Jonas disc are mostly of Chopin pieces with a
little Handel, Schubert, and Rossi.  The other discs are devoted to
Schumann excepting for the Curzon which also has Schumann's well-known
Fantasie and Schubert's Wanderer-Fantasie.  I should point out that this
is not a review of discs, but only of the Kinderszenen.

1st Scene(Foreign lands & people) - Chuprik, O'Hora, and Ortiz are
enjoyable but quite forgettable.  With Curzon, Ashkenazy, and Jonas, we
enter the realm of excellent playing.  However, Curzon is a little too
whimsical for my tastes, Ashkenazy indulges in a little note slurring,
and Jonas can be drowned out in softer passages by loud background noise
and hiss.

I'm very surprised to find my allegience going to Daniel Blumenthal.
He's quite comforting with exceptional pacing, fully captures the music's
nuances, and provides an effective sadness to reflect hopes of a child
not realized as an adult.  Blumenthal is not at the top level of Benno
Moiseiwitsch on Testament, but the performance is highly rewarding.

2nd Scene(Curious story) - Ortiz is not very enjoyable, and this is music
to enjoy.  She tugs and pulls at the piece while changing tempos and using
hesitations at the oddest times.  Maryla Jonas would be among the most
rewarding with her quick and bouncy step, but she unfortunately speeds
through the poignant passages; that's not a good decision.

Clifford Curzon and Daniel Blumenthal rise to the top with performances
that can put a smile on your face.  I'm most impressed with how naturally
the music flows in both versions, and each delivers an infectious bounce
and rhythm.  Blumenthal is certainly getting my attention.  So far, he
has a great sense of rhythm and pacing; it all has the imprint of an
exceptional recording unless Blumenthal registers problems with the more
contemplative scenes and the postlude.

3rd Scene(Catch me) - Blumenthal again excels with a thoroughly exuberant
performance; it may be on the slow side, but he's clearly enjoying every
moment.  Blumenthal is joined by Curzon who is fleet and has a little of
the devil in him and by Chuprik who speeds past even Curzon with a driving
interpretation.  None of these three matches the supreme Schnabel version,
but they are mighty fine.

There are three versions I could live without:  Ortiz, Jonas, and
Ashkenazy; each of them makes critical errors.  Ortiz has a scheme which
goes like this:  march smartly - hesitate - march smartly - hesitate, and
so on.  She kills the momentum of the music numerous times, and the 3rd
Scene thrives on momentum.  Also not doing well with momentum is Jonas who
inexplicably goes soft 19 seconds into the piece; the momentum dies on
the vine.  There's nothing wrong with Ashkenazy's momentum; it's his lower
keyboard 'chord crashing' which damages his performance.  The music does
have a sprightly nature, and chord crashing is just ridiculous for the
event.

4th Scene(Pleading child) - Although giving us a continuous stream of
pleading, Schumann serves it up with delicious intervals, inflections,
and changes in tempo and dynamics.  In Part 1, I found Moravec, Kubalek,
and Horszowski to offer exceptional performances which would be hard to
equal.  Ethella Chuprik matches these three with a superbly articulated
reading of youthful proportion; her left hand projection leads to a
wonderful level of voice interplay which reminds me of Kubalek's
interpretation.  The remaining versions are excellent.  Blumenthal could
have been at Chuprik's high quality except that he never really gets into
a hushed mode at any point in his performance.

Update on Curzon - The sound quality for Curzon is acceptable but lacks
some depth perception and richness.  To a degree, I'm finding Curzon
similar to Argerich in that both offer a low amount of foundation; I'd
prefer more concentrated readings.  In every other respect, Curzon's
performances have been highly rewarding; he well contrasts the emotional
responses from the adult and child, and his vitality is very strong.  So
far, only Blumenthal is more enjoyable among the seven versions.

5th Scene(Happiness) - I suppose it was inevitable that Blumenthal
would tumble at some point and that Ortiz would rise to the top; I'm
just surprised it happens with the same piece of music.  Blumenthal is
fast as hell, missing all of the nuance and expressiveness in the music
as he keeps speeding along.  Switch to Ortiz who can also take to very
fast tempos, and the music opens up as she applies a wealth of variety.
I didn't think I'd be hearing a version as good as Kubalek's for some time,
but Ortiz is equally compelling.  Her speed has expressive purposes which
enhance contrast; Blumental's is simply the quickest way to get from
beginning to end.

The remaining versions are very good, with Jonas being the most unusual.
She starts off so gently and slowly, only to turn on the power and speed
burners full blast.  The contrasts are extreme, and I can't report that her
interpretation is idiomatic.  However, it somehow draws me into its manic
web.

6th Scene(An important event) - As a group, I can't give a hearty
welcome to these seven performances; they tend to be more heavy than happy.
This trait most applies to Curzon and Jonas who sound damned mad about
something.  Only Ortiz carries a youthful joy through the scene, and she's
starting to climb up toward the competition.  One thing for sure:  these
seven versions of the 6th Scene are a major come-down from the ten in Part
1.

7th Scene(Dreaming) - Slow performances of three minutes or longer are
more likely to gain my affection; the music is leisurely and wide intervals
offer the potential for greater poignancy.  Realizing the potential is a
different matter, but Jonas, O'Hora, and Curzon have no problem attaining
it.  They don't quite achieve the sublimely comforting quality presented
by Moravec; however, each is a highly expressive and interesting
interpretation.  The remaining versions have no reason to hide, as they
all convey fine levels of poetry, comfort, and contemplation.

8th Scene(By the fireside) - This scene is a perfect example of the need
to blend the contemplation of the adult with the wide-eyed wonder of the
child.  Nobody does it better than Anton Kubalek, but Curzon comes close.
Although he's much faster than Kubalek, Curzon uses every opportunity to
enhance nuance and diversity.  Most of the other versions are fine; Ortiz
is jittery and Jonas is hyper-active, but fires have a multitude of
presentations.

The sole version offering little reward is the Chuprik.  She is way too
relaxed, even sedentary.  This approach does little to evoke a child's
response to fire, and the level of expression and diversity is minimal.

9th Scene(Knight of the hobby-horse) - Chuprik continues her streak
of coming in last; she's not whimsical enough and frankly too loud at
times.  A tendency too be too forceful dampens my enthusiam for Jonas and
Ashkenazy.  In each of these readings, paths are taken which call attention
to themselves.

Curzon and Blumenthal offer excellent performances with plenty of zip;
Curzon's upper voices are stunning and so well detailed.  The versions
I love come from Ortiz and O'Hora.  The reading of Ortiz is a model
of vivacious activity as it springs to life; if you can be still while
listening to her, you'd better check your pulse.  Conerning O'Hora, I've
never heard such distinctive and compelling rhythmic patterns in the
"hobby-horse"; I was hooked right from the start.

Update on Ashkenazy:  With little exception, there's been nothing
special in his performances.  Also, there are times when he is overdoing
the bass effects.  Considering the immense competition on record, the
value of Ashkenazy's version is in doubt.  But that's not all, because
the recorded sound is not up to snuff.  London/Decca gave us less than
sterling piano sound quality in the late 1980's with low clarity,
exaggerated reverberation, and a tubby sound not far off from the world
of echos.  Although I would rate Ashkenazy's sound superior to what Jonas
has to work with, the differential isn't large.

10th Scene(Almost too serious) - The gorgeous qualities of the music shine
through in each of the seven versions.  However, three pianists neglect
to take the child with them:  Ashkenazy, O'Hora, and Chuprik.  They are
thoroughly mature interpretions, and the emotional richness and contrast of
the piece is diminished.  Among the other pianists, Jonas is as quick as
ever, Curzon turns on the urgency, Blumenthal again finds an exceptional
pace, and Ortiz gives the most diverse reading of the group.

11th Scene(Frightening) - Alternating sadness/lament with frightening the
life out of a kid, this piece is very difficult to get just right.  Our
seven versions come fairly close, but don't share the prize with Martha
Argerich who also injects a very attractive and effective weeping element
into the scene.  O'Hora is similar to Argerich in conveying sadness, but
his fright is minimal.  At the other end, Ashkenazy scared me plenty but
projects little emotion most other times.  Maryla Jonas continues to be the
quickest gun in the group without losing significant poignancy.

12th Scene(Slumbering child) - The challenge with this scene is to set
intense melancholy against a child's blissful sleep and then blend them
into one.  Four versions are very good, two are not competitive, and one
joins Ivan Moravec as my favorite versions.  That would be the reading of
Clifford Curzon who, like Moravec, combines a dripping melancholy with the
most blissful sleep imaginable; their inevitable joining is a treasure of
recorded sound.

The two sub-par performances come from O'Hora and Jonas.  To put it mildly,
O'Hora doesn't put much feeling into the music with articulation of no
distinction.  Jonas totally destroys the perception of comforting sleep as
she becomes loud and aggressive; she essentially removes the child's role
and the contrast that goes with it.

Postlude(The poet speaks) - One thing to keep in mind is that the poet
speaks very slowly, always contemplating and measuring the information
with which to enlighten us.

A crucial aspect of wide intervals is how to fill up the space with
meaning and continuity from one note to another; a performance loaded
with 'blank space' is a loser.  It follows that the pianist needs to have
excellent command of articulation, use of pedal, and decay time.  There
is a way to avoid these issues; just play fast enough to remove wide
intervals.  I think of this as the 'cop-out' approach, and Chuprik is the
one who employs it at under two minutes.  The result is that the notes
sound bunched together and our poet is rushing along, having other
engagements that must be attended to.

O'Hora gives it the old 'college try', but he shoots a few blanks and I
lose interest.  The remaining versions are excellent; real meaning resides
in the intervals and greatly enriches the listening experience.  However,
I still remain wedded to the Schnabel reading for the stature he projects
and the best use of intervals I've heard to date in the Postlude.

Don's Conclusions:  As a group, the Part 2 versions of Kinderszenen are
significantly less rewarding than those reviewed in Part 1.  Curzon is
easily the best from Part 2, but I wouldn't place him higher than other
excellent versions such as from Horowitz and Argerich.  Mr.  Curzon has
all the basics excellently covered; his energy is high, he blends the
requirements of the child and adult, rhythmic patterns are interesting
and lively, and the poignancy of the work is superbly conveyed.  My only
reservation is that Curzon rarely amazes me or makes me think of the music
in a different light.

Next up is Daniel Blumenthal with a very good performance notable for an
uncanny sense of pacing.  There is one aspect of his playing that bothers
me a little:  he can display some rigidity and squareness in his phrasing.
I think that some listeners would find Blumental too restricted for their
tastes.

I can also recommend the Cristina Ortiz recording.  Her first few scenes
were loaded with problems, but she kept getting better and delivered some
exceptional performances distinctive for their variety of tempo, dynamics,
and rhythm.

O'Hora, Jonas, Ashkenazy, and Chuprik are not recommended.  These are
not poor performances at all, but the wealth of excellent or better
alternatives is simply too great.  Ronan O'Hora mostly gives sturdy
performances of the mainstream variety; that's just not good enough.
Also, his sound quality has much reverberation.

Maryla Jonas is on the odd side.  Her tempos are consistently much faster
than the norm, but she rarely loses sight of the music's poignancy.  That's
good as is the high level of confidence she exudes.  However, she is often
too forceful and sometimes pays little attention to Schumann.  Clinching
the deal is a steady and significant hiss which can drown out her softer
passages.

Vladimir Ashkenazy generally performs better than the three other
non-recommendations, but his sound is a real pain to deal with.  Frankly,
the interpretations aren't good enough to warrant living with the poor
sound quality.

Chuprik is very inconsistent.  She can be right into the idiom one moment,
then tune out the next.  Personally, I don't think she was ready to perform
this work for posterity.  A mitigating factor is that an Amadis disc costs
much less than one from Naxos; for almost no morny, you can listen to
Chuprik in your vehicle which is a much better proposition that giving her
100% concentration in your home.

To recap, there were five exceptional versions of Kinderszenen from
Part 1:  Moiseiwitsch, Kubalek, Schnabel, Horszowski, and Moravec.
With Part II out of the way, there are still five exceptional versions.
The excellent versions to date come from Horowitz, Argerich, Kempff, and
Curzon.  Hopefully, Part 3 will add to the above two categories.  Arrau
and Cortot are included, so my confidence is high.

Don Satz
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