Recording of the Week, Krystian Zimerman performs piano music by Szymanowski

After several outstanding albums in recent years of music by Schubert, Beethoven, and Bernstein, Krystian Zimerman's latest recording sees him offering up a selection of music by his compatriot, Karol Szymanowski. I say "after", but I should perhaps correctly also say "before", as technically this album has been almost thirty years in the making: the majority of pieces were recorded in Japan this year, but the performance of Masques, Op. 34 presented here actually dates from 1994 (although it has not been released until now). Given not only the time gap but also the different venue (the Masques were recorded in Copenhagen), there is a remarkable consistency to the recorded sound.

This excellent engineering allows all of Zimerman's qualities to come across beautifully, not least his robust but never harsh touch in the lower registers. There are moments in Masques of quite terrifying ferocity, yet within the densest passages Zimerman maintains absolute clarity of each individual line, even when he is having to perform three staves' worth of music simultaneously! Similarly, in places such as the second variation from the Variations on a Polish Folk Theme, Op. 10, the thundering left-hand octaves never obscure the texture or the right-hand harmonies, whilst the sheer aural onslaught that is the funeral march of the eighth variation is mightily impressive, full of great weight and profundity without becoming turgid.

Elsewhere there are instances of stillness and quiet intensity: particularly captivating in this regard were Prelude No. 8, mesmerising in its gently melancholic mood, or the end of 'Tantris le bouffon' (the second movement of Masques), which for all its virtuosic shenanigans running up and down the piano, ends delicately, Zimerman voicing each of the closing chords with ideal balance and tone.

I suppose it was only a matter of time during a discussion of Polish piano music before I felt the need to mention Chopin, so here we go: I think it's fair to say that in the earlier works he exerts a definite stylistic influence on Szymanowski, particularly in the Preludes, Op. 1 (four of which are recorded here by Zimerman), and also in the Op. 10 Variations, especially some of the filigree passagework in the first and seventh variations.

More generally, though, perhaps where the influence comes through most notably is actually in the manner of Zimerman's playing, and how extensively he deploys one of the quintessential elements of Chopin performance tradition, namely rubato. Admittedly this is not just Zimerman's idea, as Szymanowski does specifically request rubato in a couple of the preludes and at the opening of the Op. 10 Variations, but Zimerman takes this suggestion and runs with it. In the first prelude, for instance, he is often daringly expansive, prolonging the end of a bar or otherwise injecting an ebb and flow into his phrasing that in lesser hands might seem mannered or affected, but with Zimerman feels like the most natural way of shaping the music.

This is taken to extremes in the second prelude, in what I expect will be a polarising performance: Zimerman extends bars and stretches the pulse to such a degree that he ends up taking a full sixty to ninety seconds longer than everyone else (for a piece that normally only lasts just under three minutes, that's quite a feat!). Idiosyncratic? Most definitely. Infuriating? Well, that depends on your point of view. Personally I found it most persuasive, to the extent that by comparison other recordings sounded somewhat rigid when I went back to them. But even if it's not your cup of tea, I hope you will agree that it amply demonstrates the keen intelligence, ever-thoughtful interpretative decisions, and staggering technical mastery that Zimerman displays in every bar of this fine recording.