CD ECM Records Anna Gourari - Prokofiev, Medtner, Chopin: Visions fugitives

2013

Sergey Prokofiev - Visions Fugitives Op. 22
Nikolay Medtner - Fairy Tale In F Minor Op. 26/3
Frederic Chopin - Sonata No. 3 In B Minor Op. 58

Anna Gourari - pian

AllMusic:
"Prokofiev's Visions fugitives, Op. 22 (Fleeting Visions), sound very little like most of his other music. He wrote it for a group of friends, some of whom were evoked by some of the 20 short pieces. Many sound a good deal like Debussy, although their dry economy is pure Prokofiev. Still, for a composer who wrote mostly in large public forms, this is unusually intimate music, and it's nicely suited to the rather idiosyncratic style of Russo-German pianist Anna Gourari, who takes them mostly slowly, in an almost improvisatory way. The set is not often played as a whole, but they maintain their interest in her hands. The Chopin Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor, Op. 58, comes off in this performance almost as another vision fugitive. This spontaneous, discursive reading is not the version one would want when acquiring just one, but it fits within the extremely intimate dimensions of this recital, with Nikolay Medtner's Fairy Tale in F minor Op. 26/3 (one of his "Skazki"), as a very evocative entr'acte. Best of all is Manfred Eicher's production for ECM, at the Historischer Reitstadel, Neumarkt (a venue favored by high-end sound engineers), which as it were seems to hold the program in the palm of his hand. Recommended."

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Anna Gourari doesn’t force the poetic side of the music in swifter pieces such as ‘No. 4, Animato’, but still makes us sit up and take note of Prokofiev’s lyricism. It’s not all percussive effects, and the sonorities in the piano and their reflections in the rich acoustic are allowed to develop and blossom with expressive content, even when we’re rolling down a steep hill with all the pots and pans flying around. This approach is arguably more Francophile and elegant than we have come to expect from this most Russian of composers, but these are relatively early works, and the influence of Debussy is being acknowledged here to the full. […] It is always interesting how context affects the way we hear music, and with our ears still ringing with Prokofiev it is a surprise to find how ‘romantic’ his ‘Visions fugitives’ can sound, and indeed how modern Chopin can also appear. […] There is no way of placing this performance in terms of an absolute ranking. Time will tell if it becomes acknowledged as a ‘classic’, but for now I can certainly say that I like it very much indeed. This ECM is as usual a rich feast of superbly recorded piano in a resonant but not overly swampy setting which suits Anna Gourari’s playing perfectly.
Dominy Clements, Music Web International

Gourari triumphs on this program. She handles difficult technical parts with a speech-like continuity that flows the music wonderfully well. The Prokofiev has all the mystery and movement we could ask for. She understands his at times eccentric evocative moods and gives us a reading that glows with freshness. The Chopin has a weighted depth of feeling that neither under nor overplays the sentiments so nobly and fully, pianistically expressed. In every way Anna Gourari brings us her brilliant interpretive skills. The Prokofiev sings, the Chopin reverberates. A beautiful recital!
Grego Applegate Edwards, Gapplegate Classical-Modern Music Review