RECORDINGS OF THE YEAR

December

‘It’s the Scherzo that really puts others in the shade, for Wee can actually take it at a tempo that emulates orchestral accounts’

Harriet Smith is bowled over by astonishing performances by Paul Wee of two major orchestral works in highly pianistic yet deeply respectful piano transcriptions by Liszt and

Beethoven . Mozart Beethoven Symphony No 3, ‘Eroica’, Op 55 (transcr Liszt) Mozart Piano Concerto No 20, K466 (transcr Alkan) Paul Wee pf BIS (BIS2615 Í • 83’)

In September 2015 Jeremy Nicholas lamented that José Raúl López’s performance of Mozart’s D minor Concerto as reflected through the prism of Alkan did neither composer any favours. He ended: ‘This will have to do until a Hamelin tackles it.’ Well now a Hamelin has done just that, and his name is Paul Wee: lawyer by day and pianist by night. What’s immediately striking is how fast Alkan draws you into a world where you don’t miss the orchestral colours of Mozart’s original. That’s as much down to Wee, his Steinway and the splendid engineering (courtesy of David Hinitt at Wyastone Concert Hall) as the transcription itself. The score itself isn’t overburdened with instructions – dynamics and pedalling, yes, but not much in the way of phrasing or articulation, for instance. The imagination with which Wee brings the concerto to life is staggering and the way he differentiates between tuttis and solo writing adds much to the drama; impressive, too, is the way he dives into the development section, seething turbulence contrasting vividly with the gentler music, and even where textures become really involved (track 5, from 7'56", for instance) there’s a Hamelin-esque clarity to his thinking that ensures the vital lines always come through. The cadenza is, of course, Alkan’s own, and it’s gloriously OTT in its virtuosity, harmonic adventuring and scale, all of which Wee handles with delightful insouciance, before matters are brought back in hand with a peremptory trill signalling the return of (purer) Mozart.

The serenity of the Romanze is unerringly captured, with colouring and weighting that emulate the original textures – piano alone and then enveloped in strings. Touches of minor (track 6, from 2'36") are given with just the subtlest of slowings, while the more full-blown

30 GRAMOPHONE GRAMOPHONE RECORDINGS OF THE YEAR 2022

minor-key passage (from 4'00") is given its head without ever sounding aggressive, and the placing of the final chords is spot on. From here we launch into a finale that Alkan labels Prestissimo, rather than Mozart’s Allegro assai. There are so many challenges in this movement, especially at this tempo: obsessive PHO T O G R A P H Y

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