Stravinsky’s piano works, slender as they are, have been very well served on disc, starting with Aleck Karis on Bridge and continuing with Victor Sangiorgio on Naxos. Add Jenny Lin to the list of first-rate Stravinsky interpreters. Each of these discs has a slightly different program, adding musical “meat” to the major works: the Piano Sonata of 1924, the Serenade in A , the Four Etudes, and Piano-Rag Music. Combined, these only comprise about 30 minutes of playing time.
In order to bring this disc up to 64 minutes, Lin adds a selection of transcriptions, some of which are familiar (the Polka and Valse from the Second Suite for Small Orchestra, the Circus Polka, and Ragtime), and some of which are both rare and interesting. There’s a bit of the Prologue from Boris Godunov, a couple of sketches for a late sonata, and most interesting, a transcription of three movements from the Firebird Suite (Danse infernale, Berceuse, and Finale) by Lin’s teacher Guido Agosti, sanctioned by the composer.
This latter is a real find, and a nice change of pace from the otherwise inevitable Three Movements from Petrushka. It’s full of pianistic fireworks and Lin tosses it off with real bravura, albeit with understandably more rhythmic flexibility than we encounter in a typical orchestral performance. The music’s cascades of notes also offer an interesting contrast to the more linear textures characteristic of the Sonata, and to much of the remaining program. In the later, neoclassical works, Lin proves equally adept at providing crisp articulation and lucid textures without letting the music turn cold and mechanical, as it easily can.
In short, this is an extremely fine recital, and Lin’s Steinway has been quite beautifully recorded at the Sono Luminus studios in Virginia. There may not be any major works here, but the program has been intelligently assembled and the result is both very refreshing and impossible to criticize.
