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