Chopin: Sonata No. 2/4 Scherzos

Add Simon Trpceski to the recent surge of young virtuoso pianists. Born in 1979, he studied in Skopie, the capital of his native Macedonia, won prizes in Italy, the Czech Republic and England, and is already embarked on a flourishing international career. This is his third CD; the other two feature Russian music in one all-Rachmaninov and one mixed program. These five Chopin compositions give him ample opportunity to display his technical prowess and facility. He lets his hands act as equal partners, tossing off glittering, exhilarating runs and cascades at hair-raising speeds; his tone is beautiful, capable of delicate, singing lyricism and crashing chords, and he combines a fiery temperament with poetic sensibility. In the Sonata, the Funeral March is extremely slow, stately and solemn, the Finale and Scherzo are exciting but too fast for clarity, the Trio is dreamy but excessively free. The four Scherzos make somewhat strange bedfellows. Written years apart, they can hardly have been conceived as a group to be performed together. All are basically fast, virtuosic, dramatic and aggressive, with the turbulent impetuosity set off by oases of calm. Only the last one has the capriciousness, elfin lightness and charm of a true Scherzo. Trpceski brings out the changes of character and the contrasts in texture and mood both between and within the Scherzos almost too starkly; the dynamics often become exaggerated, the expression effusive. But the playing is invariably splendid. --Edith Eisler