Soulima Stravinsky (piano)
Rediscovered Recordings
rec. 1975, Handsworth Wood, Birmingham, UK; 1977, Wyastone Leys, UK
Nimbus NI7110 [2 CDs: 99]

During the 2020 COVID shutdowns Nimbus embarked on an investigation of its archives whose objective was to identify previously unissued material that might be worthy of release. Eventually over 50 recording projects were revealed that for various reasons had never seen the light of day. This recital by Soulima Stravinsky is one of them and its languishment seems surprising.  In his booklet notes, Nimbus’s Creative Director Adrian Farmer posits the reason for it being overlooked as the desire of Nimbus to launch in the mid 1970s with its most popular material and performers. It seems at the time they had a wealth of both: Vlado Perlemuter playing Ravel and Chopin and recitals by fine British pianists such as Imogen Cooper, Bernard Roberts and Martin Jones. I wouldn’t argue that any of the material on these two discs is or was ‘popular’, but one would still think there was a certain cachet in the performer and music which would have been recognised by the record buying public. Anyway, it’s great that we’re now able to hear it.

Farmer thinks that Soulima (I will use his first name to avoid any confusion) was dispatched to Nimbus by his agent Basil Douglas, who knew an opportunity when he saw it, recognising the new label as one which had, in Farmer’s words, ‘a fondness for artists whose careers were waning’. Two visits were made by Soulima in fact: to Nimbus’s Birmingham studio in 1975 and later to its new facility in Wyastone Leys in 1977. Recorded in two different acoustics, then, and just over two years apart, the performances nevertheless have the feeling of occasion and unity one might attach to a live recital. This is largely due no doubt to Soulima’s preference for recording pieces in complete takes and then patching if necessary (very few were undertaken apparently).

There’s something else too which pervades the album—a sense of authority. Soulima does something with his father’s pieces which I’ve not experienced before. They’re not being held at arm’s length or treated as novelties but given interpretations which arise from deep familiarity. I don’t mean they’re suddenly bestowed with a hitherto unperceived profundity; their relative slightness very much remains but they are given a coherence and value which is refreshing to hear. So, the Scriabinesque Quatre Etudes are revealed here as an interesting exercise in romantic style and flair, which one hears echoed in the later music. The technical difficulty of the Piano-Rag-Music becomes, if not a defining characteristic, then an essential aspect of the work’s modernist balancing rather than something that should be subsumed in a sense of the player’s facility. The Sonate and Serenade are very much a contrasted neoclassical pairing, Soulima gently pointing the sometimes ostentatious architectural aspects of the former and emphasising the relative accessibility of the latter. Above all, the pieces make sense as a recital, the sardonic sensibility of the concluding Tango somehow being the only place left to go.

The second disc also, of course, has an unmatchable authenticity with Soulima playing his own music. But again, what’s striking is how what on the face of it might be unpromising programming—three sets of ‘Fairy Tale Pieces’ and three of Variations—makes for a compelling 50 or so minutes of music when one listens straight through. Soulima appears to have had an endless aptitude for penning the miniatures which make up the Fairy Tales. There’s a welcome variety of elements: wit, drama, pastiche, romance. And each Tale has a clear narrative arc. I found them delightful. The more obviously serious pieces which follow are attractive too. The interesting choice of Machaut as a basis of a set of variations proves inspired, with beautifully differentiated, very short takes on the theme which make their mark in the blink of an eye, including a brilliant 49 second fugue. The two series of Piano Variations which follow are, in effect, exercises in style, but all have a sound intellectual basis and inherent musicality. Soulima appears to be enjoying himself hugely, relishing the opportunity to set them down for posterity.

I’m so glad, then that posterity ultimately wasn’t denied this fine pianist and interesting composer in the case of these performances. No edited master of the sessions was found in the Nimbus archive so sadly it’s likely that Soulima never heard a final presentation of his recordings. I think he would have been justifiably proud if he had.

Dominic Hartley

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Contents
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)
Quatre Etudes, Op. 7, K. 9
Piano-Rag-Music, K.32
Les Cinq Doigts, K. 37
Sonate, K. 43
Sérénade en la, K.44
Tango, K. 62
Soulima Stravinsky (1910-1994)
Three Fairy Tales – Cinderella
Three Fairy Tales – Jack and The Beanstalk
Three Fairy Tales – The Sleeping Beauty
Sonatina Sesta, on themes by G. de Machaut – Tema con Variazioni
Piano Variations, First Series
Piano Variations, Second Series