Beethoven-Liszt: Symphony No.6
Claire Huangci (piano) (Berlin Classics)
(scroll down for English review)
之前沒有聽過黃慈的唱片或音樂會，而李斯特的貝多芬交響曲改編，我向來都不大接受，結果這次聽黃慈彈《田園》就有意外驚喜。我覺得首要是她掌握到相當多的觸感及音色層次，第一樂章的旋律就既聽到頓奏及連奏的分別，就連連奏她也有不同程度的處理。一方面她能彌補將樂隊縮小成一部鋼琴的不足，但更重要是，純粹當成一首鋼琴曲來聽，我也想聽到這麼豐富的色彩及觸感，不管是不是改編自樂隊。
另一個正確的選擇是選對速度，從容不逼對樂隊來說可能較易，某程度對鋼琴也是，但在這改編版本中，放鬆地彈卻會令細節無所遁形，也就較難蒙混過去。黃慈這個演奏另一個值得欣賞的地方，是很少令人覺得音符過密。或者《田園》本身不會太多音符，所以若她願意彈《英雄》或《命運》的改編版，我洗耳恭聽。
This is my first encounter of Claire Huangci and I usually have reservations towards Liszt’s transcriptions of Beethoven symphonies. She surprised me with her very wide range of touch and colour. Just listen to the first theme and you’ll see the different degrees of staccato and legato, and a legato wasn’t just a legato. To me the key wasn’t just to give an orchestral impression while playing a transcription, this should be done also for works written originally for piano.
Her tempi were sensibly chosen. The relaxed pace might be easy for an orchestra, and for the piano in most cases. But within this transcription sloppily done passages would be very exposed. Another strength of this rendition is that it didn’t sound like there were too many notes. True, this is Pastorale so there wouldn’t be as many in the Third and Fifth Symphonies but I’d love to listen to them if Huangci gave them a try.