Classical reviews: Beethoven’s Works for Four Hands and ‘Iberia y Francia’

Two pianists effortlessly find a new angle on Beethoven, while Imogen Cooper’s pianism has a rare refinement

Ludwig Van Beethoven with the Rasowmowsky Quartet, drawn by the artist Borckmann (Getty)

Beethoven: Works for Four Hands

Peter Hill and Benjamin Frith, piano

(Delphian DCD34221)

★★★★☆

In Beethoven’s anniversary year everyone is strenuously trying to find a new angle, but these pianists have effortlessly hit on one. Beethoven was only rarely persuaded to try his hand at the four-hand art form, and the results were fairly routine, apart from one remarkable work which has become all but forgotten.

This four-hand arrangement of his string quartet Grosse Fuge is extraordinary. Originally designed as the finale to the Opus 130 quartet, it was regarded as both rebarbative and unplayable: Beethoven was persuaded to commission a four-hand version, but the pianist to whom he entrusted this task smoothed out its seeming unplayabilities. Enraged, Beethoven sacked him, took over the transcription himself, and ensured that the seeming unplayabilities were preserved. The savage beauty of the quartet version becomes naked aggression; the balm of the middle section remains wonderfully comforting, and at other times the listener feels as though they are pelted with white-hot coals. Messrs Hill and Frith have done us a service: now let’s see what other pianists make of this fascinating work.

Iberia y Francia

Piano music by Ravel, Falla, Debussy, Albeniz, and Mompou

Imogen Cooper, piano

(Chandos CHAN 20119)

★★★★★

We are more used to encountering Imogen Cooper in Beethoven and Schubert, but these tone-poems have unlocked a new seam of poetry in her playing. As she points out, the musical connections between her chosen composers are strong – Falla and Albeniz studied in France, and Ravel was of Basque extraction – and while admitting that the links between the pieces are more felt than proven, she rightly observes that there’s little to distinguish the ending of Debussy’s “La serenade interrompue” from the opening of Albeniz’s “El Albacin” which follows it. And by following Falla’s “Homenaje” with Debussy’s “La soirée dans Grenade”, Cooper illustrates the melodic bond between those composers. What this collection represents for her is an “inner amalgam” of her French student past and her love for the Catalonian coast. Cooper’s pianism has a rare refinement, and the whole thing is studded with lovely moments: the muted sweetness of “Rumores de la Caleta”, the sparkling arpeggiations of “Alborada del gracioso”, the seductive languor of “Soirée dans Grenade”, the rapt simplicity of Mompou’s sixth “Danza”, the graceful liberation of “L’isle joyeuse”. Brava!