Elisso Bolkvadze plays Prokofiev and Schubert

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The Russian school of pianism rolls forward like an Energizer Bösendorfer bunny, apparently unstoppable. Not that I’d ever want it to stop, as evidenced by Georgian pianist Elisso Bolkvadze, whose powerful, charismatic playing stands on the same level as the far more famous YouTube sensation Valentina Lisitsa. Born in Tblisi in 1967, Bolkvadze is referred to as a national hero in her native Georgia, and she’s been named a UNESCO Artist for Peace. If U.S. audiences aren’t likely to know her name, she’s performed around the world and placed sixth in the 1989 Van Cliburn Competition. Besides making an early album for Sony, there has been a steady stream of later recordings.

What sealed my enthusiasm for this new release was unexpected, a galvanizing reading of the Prokofiev Second Piano Sonata from 1912. We find the composer half-perched as bratty precocious Modernist—at 21, he was already a prominent member of St. Petersburg’s contemporary music culture—and an extremely knowing writer for piano, well on his way to developing a unique personal style. The Second Sonata, which stands in sequence between the scandalously raucous Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2, roams freely from Chopin through Liszt and Rachmaninoff, adding zingers and flashes of dissonance that must have sounded incongruous at the time. These innovations are squibs compared with the bombshell Stravinsky would drop the next year in Le Sacre, and it’s difficult to bring out a sharp profile for the whole work.

Bolkvadze manages to, however, by force of will, playing the first movement on a grander scale than, say Yefim Bronfman in his well-regarded Sony recording from 1995. At times he’s freer and more imaginative in his phrasing, but Bolkvadze has more impact. Prokofiev introduces fine-textured filigree as a contrast with power in the first movement, and Bolkvadze makes the two fit naturally together. There’s also more energy and personality throughout than with Bronfman.

Being a natural at Prokofiev has no predictive value in Schubert, and no matter how hard I squinted, the two composers don’t really belong together. Except for Richter, I don’t think of Russians pianists being very attuned to Schubert (even Horowitz made a hash of the late, great B♭ Sonata, on DG). The first set of Four Impromptus, D 899, is much loved and much recorded, so what does Bolkvadze have to add? Happily, she passes the bar insofar as her Schubert genuinely sounds like Schubert in its sensitivity, natural flow, and melodic grace. This is immediately apparent in her poised, tender reading of Impromptu No. 1 in C Minor.

I don’t hear Brendel’s refinement of touch, but I’m not sure that’s a lack; for all its fame, Brendel’s Schubert mostly strikes me as too cool and objective (although his Philips recording of the Impromptus is a standout). When an obscure pianist like Bolkvadze competes with great names, you wait for the moment when her imagination or technique falters in comparison. But it doesn’t. She builds the C-Minor Impromptu to a powerful climax that does justice to Richter’s impassioned Schubert, in fact.

Everything goes just as well in the remaining three pieces. In Impromptu No. 2 her left hand could spring the rhythm with more verve as the right hand is racing along. The middle section is considerably more forceful than the norm, but I count that a plus. This is a pianist with all the intrinsic style that the Russian school stands for, who also adds a lyricism and tenderness, beautifully exemplified in Impromptu No. 3’s enchanting melody, that even some illustrious Russian pianists didn’t possess.

It’s a delight to encounter, by chance, really, such a mature artist. Despite the chalk-and-cheese coupling of composers and the skimpy total timing, this recital disc is one to place on a short list of the year’s best. Clear, realistic piano sound; slimline cardboard packaging.

Until now, the Georgian pianist Elisso Bolkvadze has recorded primarily for the Sony Classical Infinity Digital and Cascavelle labels. On her latest release, for Audite, she makes a number of highly original interpretative choices.

Her approach to the opening of Prokofiev's 1912 Second Sonata is redolent of Scriabin – plush, full-sounding and rife with detail. The rhythmic vitality of the Scherzo becomes waylaid by explorations of colouristic ornament and the misty haze enveloping the slow movement feels more French than Russian. The moto perpetuo of the finale rattles along at a splendid clip until it too is bogged down in an expressively overgrown contrasting section. In place of Prokofiev's brightly unambiguous colours and rhythmic elan vital, we encounter over-stuffed decor and aching expressivity.

The Schubert Impromptus are prevailingly lyrical, though the rhetorical eloquence and emotional urgency of each is diminished by indecisive rhythmic underpinning. For all its admirably vivid contrasts, the C minor Impromptu seems to wander, uncertain of its ultimate goal. The E flat Impromptu comes off as more notey than•fleet, while the abandon of its contrasting section is impeded by undue focus on inner voices. The golden melody of the beloved G flat major threatens to come untethered and float into the ether for lack of an adequately anchoring bass.

Throughout the disc, Bolkvadze's undeniably sensitive playing moves note to note. We are invited to admire each tree, if not each individual leaf, heedless of the magnificent forest surrounding us. Combined with a certain stylistic ambiguity with regard to both composers, the result lacks a strong personal stamp, prompting the question of just how fully Bolkvadze inhabits the music she plays.

As for alternatives in this music, both Frederic Chiu (Harmonia Mundi - nla) and Anne-Marie McDermott's complete Prokofiev cycles are of sustaining interest and Pletnev has a great deal to say in the Second Sonata. In the more personal realm of Schubert preferences, the performances of D899 by Maria-Joao Pires, Imogen Cooper and Vassily Primakov are more compelling.

Seit Januar ist die georgische Pianistin Elisso Bolkvadze UNESCO-Botschafterin für den Frieden. Nun hat sie die damals angekündigte Einspielung mit Prokofievs 2. Sonate und Schuberts Impromptus vorgelegt – eine Aufnahme, in der sie sich als äußerst einfühlsame, sensible Künstlerin verbirgt. Ihr leichter, differenzierter, stets pulsierender Anschlag verleiht Prokofievs anklagender, tragischer Musik viel innere Energie und Spannung. Er verdeutlicht die Achterbahn der Gefühle, die den Komponisten beim Schreiben der Sonate begleitet haben muss. Lediglich im Vivace-Satz mit den stets wiederkehrenden, hämmernden Schicksalschlägen, hätten wir uns eine weniger zahme, mehr virulente Lektüre gewünscht.

Dies scheint jedoch nicht das Naturell der Künstlerin zu sein, die sich in Schuberts Impromptus vor allem von ihrer lyrischen Seite zeigt. Elisso Bolkvadze hat einen ganz entspannten Zugang zu Schubert – unaffektiert, ohne romantisches Brimborium. Ganz selbstverständlich perlt die Musik aus ihren Fingern in den Melodienkaskaden der Impromptus 2 und 4. Dazwischen setzt Elisso Bolkvadze mit kräftigeren Konturen die passenden Kontraste – etwa in der Beethovenschen Schicksalshaftigkeit von Impromptu 1 oder im Mittelteil von Impromptu 4.

Mostly lyrical and thoughtful performances, very suitable for Schubert, a bit to kind for Prokofiev. Yet, at the end, one has a very positive impression from the very sensitive Elisso Bolkvadze.