Saint-Saëns: Etudes, Valse mignonne, Valse gaie, Allegro appassionato, Mazurka No.3
François-René Duchâble (piano) (Erato)
(scroll down for English review)
聖桑在成為作曲神童前，已是一位鋼琴神童，曾背熟貝多芬全部32首奏鳴曲，任人點唱，他琴技紥實到他去到80高齡時仍然揮灑自如。聖桑的鋼琴音樂實也不少，但現在主要是協奏曲才會有人演奏，獨奏曲甚少鋼琴家涉獵。杜夏堡40年的這張聖桑鋼琴練習曲集，在今年聖桑年在數碼平台上架。這碟收錄了兩套、共12首練習曲，配上兩首圓舞曲、《熱情的快板》及《第三馬祖卡》，不過聖桑晚年寫的六首左手練習曲沒有收錄。
去到今天，這12首練習曲應該只有第一輯第六首的《圓舞曲練習曲》（軌六）較多人演奏。我覺得單從聆聽角度，聖桑的練習曲的欣賞價值遠不及蕭邦，但從彈奏的角度看，我還是相信聖桑是真心寫來給鋼琴家或鋼琴學生改進技術，只不過它們又未去到「不學你就後悔」的地步，而聖桑在它們所追求的，較多是手指的獨立性。又從聆聽的角度看，太令人感覺是在一連串手指操上面，放一條旋律就想人覺得是值得欣賞的音樂，但這個企圖又太過刻意。
所以《圓舞曲練習曲》跑出也是合情合理，對彈奏者是有技術要求，但對彈的及聽的都是好玩。杜夏堡就在它之後選了兩首圓舞曲（軌七、八），由於沒有練習曲的束縛，音樂感也稍高。同樣在作品111的六首練習曲之後，軌15及16的《熱情的快板》及《第三馬祖卡》也較容易入耳。相比起聖桑，現在有更多鋼琴家喜歡彈佛瑞，其實佛瑞也很喜歡折磨鋼琴家，不過還是有人願意接受挑戰，相信就是因為音樂上較有深度吧。
Before he became a composing prodigy Saint-Saëns was already a piano prodigy who committed all 32 Beethoven sonatas to memory, daring to play any of it by request. He also had a very solid technique that served him extremely well in his eighties. He had a sizable output for piano, but nowadays only two concertos stay in the repertoire, and the solo works were largely ignored.
This 1980 recording had two sets of Saint-Saëns etudes (12 in total), combined with two waltzes, Allegro appassionato and Mazurka No.3. Sadly the six etudes for left hand weren’t included.
At present only the Etude en forme de valse (track 6) from the first set was heard regularly. For a listener these Saint-Saëns etudes were far less enjoyable than Chopin. But to be fair, I think Saint-Saëns was sincere in writing them for pianists and students to polish up their technique. Yet they weren’t indispensable and they seemed to focus on finger independence. Somehow I wasn’t convinced by Saint-Saëns’ attempt to make them more musical by simply placing a melody above the finger drills.
So it wasn’t incidental for the waltz etude to have lasting power. It was both fun to play and to listen. And it was wise for Duchâble to follow it up with two waltzes (tracks 7 and 8), which were more musical than the etudes. Likewise the Allegro appassionato (track 15) and Mazurka No.3 (track 16) were easy listening.
These days more and more pianists have Fauré solo pieces in their repertoire. Fauré also liked to torment his pianists but they seem to be more willing to take on his challenge than Saint-Saëns’. The more personal and profound touch of Fauré might as well be the reason.