Brahms.

Libor Novacek--piano. Production: Landor Productions Ltd. Text: Eng., Ger., Fr. Recorded: Jan. 2008, Potton Hall, Suffolk. Released: 2008. TT: 75:48. DDD. 1 CD Landor Records LAN285.

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Last year in England the pianist Libor Novacek recorded what is already his third CD title, this time devoted to the music of Johannes Brahms. This CD can boast generally enthusiastic reviews and praise in the most prestigious magazines--for example the recording won a five-star rating and the honour of "Instrumental Choice" in the BBC Music Magazine and was "Editores choice" in The Gramophone selection. Both of the pianist's preceding CDs had also won considerable acclaim, earning Novacek the reputation of one of the greatest piano hopes of the present (in 2007 he made a CD devoted to Franz Liszt and the year before he recorded pieces by Janacek, Martinu, Ravel and Debussy). All three compact discs have been published by Landor Productions Ltd., which focuses on the support of major talents at the beginning of their careers. Victory in the first year of the competition held by this company (2005) brought Novacek a long-term contract to record CDs.

Since 1999 Libor Novacek (*1979) has been studying and living in London, where be graduated summa cum laude from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in 2004. In the same year be was selected to represent the Young Concert Artist Trust in London and won a number of important awards at international competitions (John Lill Piano Prize, The AXA Dublin International Piano Competition 2006). The repertoire of this Brahms title is chosen with care: beside a poetically virtuoso, surprisingly mature composition by the young Brahms (Sonata in F sharp minor, op. 2 of 1852) we find the Eight Piano Pieces, op. 76 from the creative zenith of Brahms's career and then Three Intermezzos, op. 117, from the last phase of Brahms's work.

Robert Schumann called Brahms's early piano sonatas "veiled symphonies" and they indeed prefigure much that the composer later developed and elaborated in his symphonic work. With his colourful, delicate play, Novacek captivates the listener from the very beginning. His play is cultivated but never sleek, and the virtuoso passages (for example the thematic octave runs in fortissimo in the first movement), are played with masterly ease, but in a moderate spirit, without dazzling brilliance. Novacek is apparently not concerned with traditional bravura, and in his interpretation the romantic hothead is seen through the prism of his later, classicising work. Each of the four movements of the sonata comes across as very compact, with every smallest detail subordinated the structure of the whole in the way demanded by the composer's musical thinking. My only criticism is that perhaps the tempo of the second movement (Andante con espressione) might have been a little more lively, and at some points in Novacek's interpretation the melodic line, which typically in Brahms is reminiscent of a sentimental old song--seems to lose the necessary expressiveness (see the performance instruction "sempre marcato ed espress, la melodia"). The recording of all the Eight Piano Pieces of 1878 is an especially praiseworthy move in terms of CD dramaturgy, especially since Novacek manages to imprint each piece with a unique mood through his very heart-felt and expressively nuanced play. There are few pianists who can play a larger number of Brahms's compositions with higher opus numbers without the risk of the listener becoming a little bored sometimes. The three intermezzos from 1892 date from a time when the rapidly ageing and ill composer was succumbing to ever more oppressive feelings of nostalgia and melancholy. These too Novacek performs with great inner understanding; this is real, chiaroscuro Brahms, with all the delicate beauty of its musical poetry and all its bitter life experience. The success of the CD will certainly be enhanced by the accompanying booklet, which is excellent in both textual content and graphic design and contains--apart from several artistically striking and tasteful photographs of the performer--two photographs showing the composer in his youth and mature years.

Jindrich Bajgar