Malcolm Binns (piano)
A 90th Birthday Tribute
BBC Scottish SO / Sir Malcolm Sargent, Norman Del Mar
rec. 1961-2000
APR 7405 [4 CDs: 290]
A glance at the credits of several APR discs, and other labels for that matter, will reveal the words from the collection of Malcolm Binns. His large collection of 78 rpm records is now in the safe hands of APR and will undoubtedly add to future historic releases (Grünfeld please) but for now they give Binns top billing with this wonderful tribute on the occasion of his 90th birthday, bringing significant recordings back into the catalogue and allowing us to hear concerto broadcasts from the sixties preserved in Binn’s own collection. Binns was born in Nottingham in 1936 and raised in Bradford. He studied at the Royal College of Music under New Zealand born pianist Arthur Alexander and went on to be a professor there from 1961 to 1964 while building a career that would place him to the first rank of British pianists. I was fortunate to attend a lunchtime recital in 1994 in which he played Schumann’s Carneval, two études by Moscheles and Henri Herz’s Fantasy on Donizetti’s ‘Vivi tu’ a fearsomely difficult piece which I love whilst admitting it is a mildly superficial piece; I went to get an autograph afterwards and he joked to the effect that the Herz was the first and last time I’ll play it, too many notes to be worth the effort though as I listen to it again he devotes the same care and attention to it as he does the Schumann, treating it as if it were solid gold.
Among his achievements in a long career – he retired at the age of eighty – were seventeen performances at the London Promenade concerts. His début there was in 1960 with Franck’s Symphonic Variations and, with yearly performances up until 1970, he continued right up to his final appearance in 1982 with Mendelssohn’s D minor Piano concerto under John Pritchard. In his second appearance on 6th August 1961 he played two concertos with the BBC symphony Orchestra under Sir Malcolm Sargent, the second concertos of Liszt and Beethoven, performances which feature on disc one of this set in reverse order. What a treat for the audience that night was. The youthful Beethoven concerto, finished when Beethoven was just nineteen years old, seven years younger than Binns at this performance, is dazzling in the hands of this wonderful partnership. The orchestral sound is a little woolly but you soon forget that as you listen to Sargent’s sure grip on the orchestra and Binns’ clarity of fingerwork and characterful playing. Both concertos are excellent and Binns cooks up quite a storm in the final section of the Liszt but I find his lyrical playing especially pleasing here and the buoyancy in the Beethoven is infectious. In the booklet Binns remarks on Sargent as orchestral accompanist you couldn’t shake him. He would follow you anywhere and though he was recounting his playing the Rawsthorne concerto with Sargent his talents are clear here too. A year earlier Binns made his Royal Festival Hall début with Kenneth Jones and the RPO playing the UK premiere of Prokofiev’s fourth piano concerto for the left hand. It was a Paul Wittgenstein commission but also one of those that Wittgenstein didn’t like and didn’t play. It’s premiere, with pianist Siegfried Rapp, did not take place until after Prokofiev’s death and Binns was likely only the third pianist to take up the piece; despite the advocacy of pianists like Binns, Rudolf Serkin, Gary Graffman, Michel Béroff and others it has never achieved anything like the popularity of the first three concertos. Its appeal perhaps isn’t as immediate as its companions but when played in such commanding fashion it is hard not to be won over, whether that’s in the scurrying semiquavers of the first movement, the lilting drama of the andante, the brusque humour combined with tenderness of the third movement or the over-in-the-blink-of-an-eye finale with its hushed dynamics that reprises the material of the first movement. For a concerto that would still have been relatively new to all the musicians this is an exceptional performance.
More Russian repertoire is found on disc two. Binns recorded Russian music by Balakirev including both of the concertos and solo piano, Rimsky-Korsakov, Medtner including the piano quintet in addition to the solos in this set and Liapunov, his towering set of transcendental studies. Thirty years before he recorded those studies he recorded and broadcast Lyapunov’s first concerto in a rare outing for the work, beating Raymond Lewenthal to the punch by nearly a decade – Lewenthal played the work at the Butler University romantic piano festival in 1970. Like the studies it is influenced by Liszt and while Lyapunov’s piano style is a meld of his own imagination and Balakirev’s mentoring the single movement form of the concerto and the transformation of its themes clearly follows the Hungarian composer. It is gloriously romantic and its sweeping and passionate pianism suits Binns down to the ground. More rarities follow. I remember being so excited when I was much (much) younger to get hold of a Concert Artist cassette of Binns playing Rubinstein and Alkan. I had heard Rubinstein’s staccato étude and tried unsuccessfully to hear the rest of the six and I was being newly introduced to the wonder that is Alkan so this little cassette was played often – probably until it gave up the ghost. What a treat to hear those recordings anew. If Rubinstein had been given a brief to write six studies that were as over the top as possible he could hardly have done better. Even the delicate figurations of the first étude grow into a veritable cascade. The lyrical third is a sort of respite though not for the pianist with its many passages of wide arpeggio writing in the style of Adolf Henselt, a Parisian virtuoso who settled in Russia and taught a generation of pianists. Waves of swirling arpeggios and treacherous leaps bring us back to the boil in the fourth, a baton taken up in the fifth with its vertiginous interlocking hands and double note devilry. Rubinstein evidently thought he was being too restrained so far so decided that the simple melody of the final étude should be accompanied by chords, then triplet chords… and why not spread the left hand over two octaves and then try keyboard leaping chords in quavers…and triplets…and why not semiquavers? It’s all a little exhausting to listen to and one can see why the second of the set, the familiar staccato étude, is the most often played but it is good to have the whole set especially when played as peerlessly as this. The Alkan items are as exceptional; we are blessed with wonderful recordings of Alkan’s music nowadays including several of the concerto but as the booklet says Lewenthal’s pioneering solo LP of Alkan had only appeared the previous year so this was virgin territory – even Ronald Smith and John Ogden’s recordings were still to come. Binns clarity of fingerwork is remarkable, be that in the fullest textures or the most lyrical of passages though admittedly Alkan’s lyrical passages here are still rather dizzying technically. The two capriccios are in a different world to the ten-a-penny military representations that pianist in the early 19th century spewed out and Binns just oozes character in both. The sound might have given Andrew Halifax trouble but he has done a masterful job and these sound sparkling compared to my old cassette.
This amazing set is completed by two of the five recordings that Binns made for Pavilion Records. Now that the Pearl label is defunct APR has licensed them from the current owner. His Nicolai Medtner recital includes three of the Sonatas and a set of his unique Skazki. The Sonata-Ballade, Medtner’s favourite and one that he recorded (available in a three CD set on APR7315 review), is a marvellously constructed work with not a note out of place. Why isn’t this in more pianist’s repertoire? Like Liszt and Liapunov he carries the theme heard at the beginning right through to the exultant end and uses the theme of the lugubrious middle movement as inspiration for the opening of the finale. Medtner’s familiar rhythmic and contrapuntal complexity is there in force but is tempered by the pastoral nature of the theme. Binns is every bit Medtner’s equal here and he continues with a couple of sonatas that Medtner never got round to recording. It is perhaps not surprising that the Sonata Minacciosa, minacciosa meaning threatening, does not have the popular appeal of the sonata-ballade but it is study in dramatic tension and sparing use of thematic material in its single 19 minute movement. Binns is naturally the equal of the ferocious writing and the darkness that underpins much of its drama. Its polar opposite is the sonata-idylle written in 1937, the storms and turbulence of the sonata minacciosa forgotten in its pastoral nature. The first of its two movement is under four minutes and has a simplicity to its themes and writing that is unusual in Medtner’s music though it remains unmistakeably Medtner. Like Balakirev there is very little of Medtner’s piano music that is within reach of the modest amateur and his publisher had asked for something of a simpler nature, a request that resulted in this sonata and the Romantic Sketches for the Young op.54. The second movement is faster and dance-like with lightness and a twinkle in the eye. It is marked vivo, giocoso, leggiero, lively, joyously, lightly but its innate lyricism and lightness of touch is shown in the plentiful appearances of tranquillo, dolcemente, cantando, tranquil, sweet and sung, indications that Binns observes deliciously. The dotted rhythms of this finale are echoed in the second of the four op.26 skazki played with great vigour. The miniatures are a superb centrepiece to this very fine Medtner collection.
Disc four contains the complete études of Chopin, the second of the Pearl releases here, recorded in 1995 in the concert hall of Cambridge University faculty of music. Binns had actually recorded the études for the Saga label in the early sixties but with Vladimir Ashkenazy’s 1960 recording being imported from Russia Binns’ version was left on the shelf with just a few excerpts included in the odd compilation LPs. While it would be lovely to hear the young Binns in this repertoire we are very lucky to have this wonderful set in excellent sound and perhaps the years between the two sets bring us to the best time to hear him in this repertoire. Binns is in possession of a huge technique as this set amply demonstrates but he doesn’t feel the need to rub one’s face in it. He avoids the hard, steely edged approach, excesses and mannerisms that can be heard in the playing of some pianists while equalling them technically and often excelling in bringing lyrical expressiveness. Op.10 no.8 is playing as I write, a performance with an incredible buoyancy and evenness of tone that is miraculous throughout but especially so in quieter passages, played with remarkable delicacy. The ninth has a real dance-like quality that is mirrored in op.25 no.2 as it is in many of these pieces. This is indeed a marvellous set and certainly among the best as the Gramophone claimed; there is a warmth and vibrancy to the playing that speaks of years getting under the skin of the études. He also includes the three études written for the Méthode des méthodes de piano of Ignaz Moscheles and François-Joseph Fétis and I am impressed by these as much as the most demanding of the larger sets. His vocal line in the F minor is impeccable and he judges the staccato of the minuet to perfection. As a bonus APR have included a delicious morsel from a third Pearl LP, Balakirev’s imaginative transcription of Glinka’s the Lark, as delightful an encore as any I can imagine and whetting appetites for more.
The booklet describes the difficulties of presenting these discs in the best sound and expresses a hope that it is now presentable. It most certainly is and hopefully this exceptionally fine set will introduce a new generation to this wonderful pianist. I have been enthralled listening through this set and will often be dipping in to its treasures. To those new to the pianist or those renewing an acquaintance through newly released repertoire prepare to be astonished.
Rob Challinor
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Contents
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1837)
Piano Concerto No.2 Op.19 (1787-89)
Franz Liszt (1811-1886)
Piano Concerto No.2 S.125 (839-1861)
Sir Malcolm Sargent (conductor)
BBC Symphony Orchestra
rec. 6 August 1962 Royal Albert Hall, London
Serge Prokofiev (1891-1953)
Piano Concerto No.4 for the left hand Op.53 (1931)
Norman Del Mar (conductor)
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
rec. 21 January 1962 BBC Broadcasting House, Glasgow
Sergei Liapunov (1859-1924)
Piano Concerto No.1 in E Flat Minor Op.4 (1890)
Norman Del Mar (conductor)
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
rec. 21 January, 1961 Studio 1, Broadcasting House, Glasgow
Anton Rubinstein (1829-1894)
Six Études Op.23 (1849-50)
Charles-Valentin Alkan (1813-1888)
Allegretto alla Barbaresca No.10 of 12 études dans tous les tons mineurs Op.39 No.10 (pub.1857)
Capriccio alla soldatesca Op.50 (pub.1859)
Le tambour bat aux champs Op.50bis (pub.1859)
Nicolai Medtner (1879-1951)
Sonata- Ballade in F Sharp Major Op.27 (1912-14)
Sonata Minacciosa in F Minor Op.53 No.2 (1931)
4 Skazki Op.26 (1912)
rec. 29 September, 1976 Wigmore Hall, London
Sonata-Idylle in G Major Op.56 (1935-37)
rec. 1991, location unknown
Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)
12 Études Op.10
12 Études Op.25
Trois Nouvelle Études KKIIb/3
Mikhail Glinka (1804-1857) arr. Mily Balakirev (1837-1910)
The Lark
