H2O – A Musical contribution to World Water Day
Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936)
Fontane di Roma (1916)
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908)
Shéhérazade, Op 35 (1888)
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
Rapsodie Espagnole (1907)
Jacopo Giovannini, Yi Lin Jiang (piano 4 hands)
rec. 2023, Kronenzentrum Bietigheim Germany
ANCLEF 20240322 [70]

At its heart this is rather an interesting programme, taking three famous pieces by renowned master orchestrators and presenting them in the composers’ own versions for piano four-hands. However, to mark this release’s contribution to “World Water Day” on 22nd March the A&R department of ANCLEF records tie themselves in knots justifying the “H2O” title given to the disc. Their theory is that all this music “evoke[s] the water element through a picturesque narrative of fountains [tick], folktales [erm, perhaps a bit], and dances [not at all]”. Getting into their purple-prose stride, we discover that the two pianists turn “their different artistries into one unique emulsion”.

Better to sit back and enjoy the fine playing of pianists Jacopo Giovannini and Yi Lin Jiang and explore these master-composers’ different approaches to rendering opulent orchestral works onto a single keyboard. In part, the approach is dictated by the reason for the piano version. Ravel’s Rapsodie Espagnole originated in this form as many of his orchestral works did en route to their orchestral grandeur, so it is clearly a developing process. Rimsky-Korsakov’s Shéhérazade was produced to satisfy the domestic market clamouring to be able to experience and share this most popular work in the home. While Respighi was exploiting another technological advance by ‘recording’ this version of Fontane di Roma on piano rolls with fellow composer Casella for the Welte-Mignon reproducing piano. Not that the liner has time for such details or indeed any useful information about the music excepting rather gushing descriptions of each work.

But putting that to one side the good news is that these fine pianists give technically impressive, musically sensitive performances of all three works and are well recorded on a Steinway D grand piano. The information I gleaned about the Welte-Mignon reproducing piano was in the liner for a different recording of Fontane di Roma in this version. I reviewed that for MWI back in 2012 on a La Bottega Discantica by Tiziana Moneta & Gabriele Rota playing a selection of Respighi scores for piano 4 hands. I was interested to return to that review to find a nearly identical reaction to the work. In both cases, the duo pianists play very well indeed. But they are unable to surmount the issue that when the score becomes grandiose with waves of ‘orchestral’ tone crashing around them in the central pair of fountains, the arrangement simply cannot cope. That said, Jiang and Giovannini are slightly more muscular and dynamic in these movements than the earlier version. Conversely, both teams are excellent in the gentler outer movements representing dawn and dusk, with beautifully limpid and sensitive playing. Jiang and Giovannini make one curious choice at the very close. In the score viewable here on IMSLP Respighi meticulously marks the score with many of the original instrumentation details to the extent that it almost reads like a short score rather than an arrangement. A repeated D above middle C is marked “campana” which the current pair substitute with a suspended cymbal which sounds for all the world like a rather genteelly decorous dinner gong. Unless there is some other provenance for this that I am not aware of, it sounds simply out of place. If pushed for the outer fountains I would opt for Tiziana Moneta & Gabriele Rota, so honours are split.

Interestingly, Rimsky-Korsakov’s own arrangement of Shéhérazade is less prone to a sense of being underpowered than the Respighi in its 4-hand form. Yes, the final great climax in the fourth movement when the ship is wrecked at sea does not (cannot) drive home with the force an orchestra in full-sail can. But many other passages – including the characteristic sinuous violin solos – actually work very well. This is in part due to the excellence of the playing here, with the pin-sharp ensemble even in passages enhanced by subtle use of rubato and rhythmic freedom. Another reason is that I suspect the sheer amount of different instrumental detail and musical lines is less in this work than the preceding Respighi. So Rimsky-Korsakov as transcriber is able to focus on the main material without sacrificing secondary instrumental colour. The further benefit for the listener is the clarity of line and harmony that a good transcription such as this offers. Again, the score can be viewed here. Curiously, given the popularity of the work and the skill of the arrangement, there have not been that many recordings of it. There is a 2018 version on Urania I have not heard and another released on various labels recorded in 1990 and reviewed on MWI here by the great Anthony Goldstone and Caroline Clemmow which I do know. Goldstone and Clemmow are predictably excellent both in technical and musical terms – their performance just shades for me this new recording, but I do not know if it is still in the current catalogue. Both versions are genuinely virtuosic and compellingly dramatic, but Goldstone and Clemmow have a fraction greater fire and expressive range.

With the undoubted benefit of hindsight given the composition’s keyboard origins, it does seem that Ravel’s Rapsodie Espagnole is the work that feels most completely effective in the piano 4 hands form. As such it has received substantially more recordings in this version than either of the other two works, but the standard of the performance it is given here is again very high. The liner might gush about “the alluring timbres of the Andalusian cadence” or “this symbiotic narrative cycle of water and life” [I suspect Ravel would be as surprised as anyone to realise that’s what he was writing about]. But Jiang and Giovannini in performance find an ideal balance between the impressionistic languor of the opening Prélude à la nuit and the elated energy of the closing Feria. The comparative competition here is – as mentioned – greater, but this new performance measures well.

Indeed, if a curious collector is open to the insights and alternatives such keyboard arrangements can offer, this disc contains valid and enjoyable versions of all three works. Jiang and Giovannini are a well-matched pair of players – they swap first and second roles across the disc – and they have insightful ideas to share in these works. The programme in its own right is a good and enjoyable one which does not need to be poured into a jug of watery justification to work. As mentioned, the engineering is good while the presentation of the liner fairly pointless. But it’s the music that counts and by that measure there is much to enjoy here.

Nick Barnard