Dvořák Poetic Tone Pictures, Op. 85 Leif Ove Andsnes (piano) Sony Classical 19439912092 56:10 mins
A small number of Dvořák’s best-known works remain so popular that the richness of his wider output is still obscured. Nothing illustrates this better than his wonderful piano music, and the Poetic Tone Pictures, Op. 85 are a particular case in point: this substantial cycle of 13 pieces dates from 1889, the year the Eighth Symphony also appeared, yet is little heard. At least Leif Ove Andsnes’s championship of this music means that many more ears will be opened to it. He plays with poetic warmth, summoning up a storytelling spirit right from the start of the opening piece, ‘Twilight Way’, with its gently rippling arpeggios. If at first he seems to be evoking a similar soundworld to that of Grieg, a speciality of the Norwegian pianist, it’s a reminder that the two composers were contemporaries.
Andsnes also has all the virtuosity required, and captures the full scope of the cycle from the lightness of the ‘Goblins’ Dance’ to the darkly dramatic ‘At a Hero’s Grave’. Yet although only one of the pieces (‘Furiant’) carries the title of a Czech dance, there is still a more subtle and whimsical Czechness in this music than Andsnes always finds. And it’s odd that for an interpreter so scrupulous about expressive markings, he ignores the 5/4 pulse in the final piece, ‘On the Holy Mountain’, compressing the cadenza-like flourishes to leave four beats in those bars. In his only work in this time signature, Dvořák clearly sought a special feeling here.
John Allison