11th V.cliburn Silver

The word among piano fanciers after the completion of the 11th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition was that the Fort Worth contest had fielded the strongest team of finalists in its 40-year history. To judge by this excellent recording, the two pianists who shared second prize, Antonio Pompa-Baldi of Italy and Maxim Philippov of Russia, must have lost out to the two who shared first (Russia's Olga Kern and Stanislav Ioudenitch) by no more than a sixteenth note. In Chopin's Sonata No. 2 in B-flat Minor ("Funeral March"), Pompa-Baldi proves himself a more interesting Chopin player than Jon Nakamatsu, the first-prize winner of the 10th Cliburn. Pompa-Baldi's performance of the B-flat Minor Sonata is intelligently organized and lyrical. If it lacks the conviction and thrust that Evgeny Kissin brings to the piece in his BMG recording, one could make the same criticism about almost every other recording of the work by a living pianist. Pompa-Baldi does a fine job with the bright Franco-Italian colors of Poulenc's "Caprice italien" (the final movement of the composer's Napoli Suite) and the motoric rhythms of Prokoviev's Etude in D Minor. His most convincing performance is his reading of Scriabin's Sonata No. 4 in F sharp Major. In its wit and sophistication, Pompa-Baldi's Scriabin more nearly approaches the music of Debussy than that of Rachmaninov--an interpretive route that Scriabin, never a fan of his countryman's music, would, no doubt, have approved. Rachmaninov that sounds traditional in its dark coloration and keening poignancy is what Philippov supplies in his performances of 10 of the composer's 13 Preludes, Op. 32. This is playing I would call great were it not for versions just as reliable and slightly more wonderful--such as Ashkenazy's recording of all 24 Preludes on Decca and Richter's selection of 13 Preludes from Op. 23 and Op. 32 (most recently available on an Olympia disc). For a complete version of Op. 32 that is utterly different--more attentive to the polyphonic play of voices, less conventionally virtuosic, and lighter in textures--try Konstantin Lifschitz's brilliant account on Denon, which is coupled with music by Scriabin, including an astonishing performance of the Sonata No. 5. --Stephen Wigler

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