CD Review: Robert Silverman's complete Mozart Sonata box a major disappointment

When a veteran artist sits down to record a whole set of works by a significant composer, one should pay attention. Robert Silverman, who is 72 now, has had a long and respected career in Canada and beyond. He has recorded all 18 of Mozart's Piano Sonatas (plus the C-minor Fantasy to go with No. 14) and released them in a 7-disc boxed set.

To say that I'm disappointed with the results is an understatement. The reason is simple: Silverman has neatly laid out the notes of each piece, from beginning to end, following the composer's instructions and performing on a modern concert grand piano in a highly articulated style that is probably closer to Mozart's approach than the smoother, modern way of playing. But that's it. I'm assuming that it was Silverman's careful interpretive choice, but there is nothing extra in his performances to suggest a desire to make beautiful music out of these piles of notes. 

Just notes, even be they from masterworks of Bach, Beethoven or Brahms, are never interesting without the interpreter's added touch. Staying out of the musical picture is not what historically accurate performing is all about.

My disappointment with Silverman grew last night, when English keyboard master Richard Egarr managed to coax more music, nuance and dynamic excitement out of his little fortepiano than Silverman did from a modern Steinway.

In the accompanying booklet, Silverman makes a big deal of the way the sound for these sonatas was captured, using something called an IsoMike. I found the resulting sound too dry and clinical -- further accentuating the uninteresting piano playing.

I feel sad that all this time, effort and money have come to so little.

This performance of the "Alla Turca" rondo from Sonata No. 11 is nearly 20 years old, but I was surprised to hear that Silverman's approach hasn't changed much. Compare it to a nearly 60-year-old recording by the late Alicia de Larrocha, my single greatest youthful inspiration in piano performance:

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Here's a little extra: de Larrocha with gnarled hands making poetic magic in the "Larghetto" from Mozart's final Piano Concerto, No. 27, with Nicholas Carthy leading the Svizzera Italiana Orchestra.

Comments

[Robert Silverman]

Alicia de Larrocha's Turkish March is a wonderfully beautiful rendition, but I could no more emulate that style of playing than IsoMike engineer Graeme Brown would have wanted to emulate that cavernous 1940-50s Hispavox sound that permeates all her recordings from that era.  Hers was an additive approach--like Horowitz and Gould, she applied her own individual lively vivid imagination to the notes she found--whereas I generally do my best, as many perceptive folks have fortunately noted and appreciated, to extract as much content and meaning from the score, and what I perceive to the musical thoughts that produced those black dots on the page. (Interestingly, Larrocha's style changed greatly as she matured. In fact the Turkish Rondo from her later integral edition of the sonatas resembles mine infinitely more than it does her earlier recording, except that her recorded sound still leaves much to be desired.)

In case anyone cares enough about this review to want to comment further, may I suggest that they first listen to my recorded performance of the C minor Fantasy, ( http://robertsilverman.ca/index.php?mpage=hearsee&spage=hear ) and decide for themselves? Unlike the example your reviewer submitted, it comes from the actual recording.

[Rebecca K.]

It's absurd that declarations of taste such as the one above are treated as instances of legitimate critical discourse. Until critics stop equivocating on "things that are bad" for "things that are good, but not to my taste", it will be hard to take their writing to be anything but works of entertainment. There are lots of recordings I probably wouldn't purchase for my own collection. I, for one, am not a huge fan of Argerich's recordings of Schumann (although I love most of her other recordings) and prefer those of Rubinstein. Does that make Argerich's "a major disappointment"? Does this mean that her recordings are not worthy of deeper analysis and criticism? Of course not.

[Carol A. Hodgdon]

Contrary to John Terauds' opinions on Mr. Silverman¹s Mozart Sonatas
collection, I find Mr. Silverman¹s interpretations lyrical and exciting: the
lines sing as if they were elegant vocal lines. He captures the inner
dynamics and Mozartian melodies of each line perfectly, in my opinion. All
one has to do is really listen with an unjaundiced ear to experience these
beautiful interpretations of Mozart¹s masterpiece sonatas.

Perhaps Mr. Terauds is so swept up by the microphone system, that he has
ceased to hear the counter melodies so expertly performed. Perhaps Mr.
Terauds is not a singer, thus not grasping what only Mozart does so well.
The inner voices are expressed so beautifully that I fail to understand his
criticism that Mr. Silverman¹s interpretive ³touch² is absent. Quite the
opposite: Mozart¹s genius shines through superbly, hardly ³uninteresting
piano playing². These are both delicate and robust performances, a
brilliant addition to Mr. Silverman¹s oeuvre.

[James Goodfriend]

As a one-time music critic myself (I was Music Editor of Stereo Review magazine for 17 years and taught music criticism under the auspices of the Music Critics’ Association), I was appalled at the nature of Mr. Terauds’ review of Robert Silverman’s recording of the complete Mozart piano sonatas. Silverman has been a much-respected pianist for many years and the numerous reviews of his concerts and recordings have testified to his intellectual depth and musical honesty. To say that “there is nothing extra in his performances to suggest a desire to make beautiful music out of these piles of notes” is simply to close one’s mind to any interpretation that does not conform to a pre-determined taste. That is not music criticism, to my mind, but the absence of it.
Any musical artist, when performing the music of another time and place, and on an instrument essentially different from that of the composer, must set his own parameters of interpretation. Silverman chooses to use the resources of the modern piano, but to eschew the romantic and individualistic interpretative styles of playing that grew up along with the modern piano. Instead, he follows whatever directions Mozart gives in his scores and supplements them with what is known of Mozartean performance practice (ornamenting and varying repeats, for example) and what we know of Mozart as a musical personality (again, for example, that he was primarily an opera composer and operatic styles and concepts are present in virtually all his music). When one listens to these performances, one hears the implicit arias, duets and ensembles and the music comes to life in its own terms. Silverman is also keenly aware of the sense of tragedy that lies below the surface of some of Mozart’s music -- quite possibly the earliest manifestation of such a tragic sense in instrumental music – and he brings it out keenly, still without violating Classical style. In short, I find the overwhelming majority of these performances “convincing.” That is a different thing from saying that they do or do not fit the Procrustean bed of my pre-determined, preferred style of performance.
I too, years ago, was enthralled by Alicia de la Rocha’s recording of the Sonata in A, with all its “extras.” It was a stunning performance but, after hearing another, quite different rendition of the work (by Rosanna Martins), it became clear to me that the de la Rocha performance was really more about de la Rocha and the romantic and virtuosic style of pianism than it was about Mozart. I do not say it is “wrong.” I simply say it is a different thing, sui generis, and to set it up as a standard of Mozart interpretation is misguided. One might as easily decide that Furtwängler’s performances were the only true way to perform Beethoven and that those of say, the Kleibers (both father and son), were mere note reading.
No, Robert Silverman’s album sets a high standard for the performance of the Mozart sonatas (and especially the Fantasy). One may like the renditions or dislike them, one may prefer a different performance of this or that sonata, one may exercise personal taste, one may even disagree with Silverman and believe that the Mozart piano sonatas are generally not among his best works. But these are eminently believable performances: dramatic, lyrical, playful and tragic in their turn, totally in line with both the scores and what we know of Mozart and his time. They should not be dismissed; they should be heard.
-- James Goodfriend