MORITZ MOSZKOWDSKI PLAYED BY ETSUKO HIROSE
The brilliant Elsuko Hirose
This newly released disc is a tale of two geniuses. Or genii? Combined , their talents are prodigious. A pianist and her pianistic idol meld to produce a record full of belle époque charm. To listen to this music is to return to the highpoints of fin de siècle grandeur. Put it on and waltz round the room. Every so often stop to recognize a really famous piece of music. The piano never got any grander than this.
Composer – and arranger -Moritz Moszkowdski was born to a wealthy talented family in Poland in 1845. He began his dazzling career early , the family moved to Dresden when he was 14 . The young prodigy went to the Stern conservatory in Berlin. He was a brilliant pianist and by 1873 he had an enviable reputation and was on tour or over Europe - known for his delicacy and technical polish
He hit the high spot of his entire when he played his Concerto number one on two pianos alongside the hugely admired genius and composer Franz Liszt who - unbelievably for Moritz- became an admirer.
So why haven’t you heard of this brilliantly talented young man the author of scores of concerti? First of all he did not seem to have the go-to cutthroat ambition which probably drove the likes of Tchaikovsky Beethoven and Liszt himself into the history books of music. His first Concerto was only discovered 140 years after he wrote it. At the time he was so modest he told those asking for a publication that it wasn’t good enough, and anyway it was a huge piece of work and was currently propping up his wonky piano stool.
Yet he was hugely rated as the pianist in his own lifetime and only Chopin rivaled him for expertise and interpretation. He was also very unlucky in love. His marriage to Henrietta Chaminade in 1884 was a complete disaster despite having two children, five years later his wife abandoned him and the children and went back alone Paris.
He is now is more or less forgotten today, but Japanese pianist Etsuko Hirose has plucked his neglected works out of obscurity. reassessed his own view that his his life had been a failure and interpreted them into a sparkling album full of delightful melodic music.
Etsoko is a child star . She was playing the great composers at incredibly, three years old and by the mature age of six she was performing Chopin in concerts.
Somehow the combination of this admiring young piano genius and the music of a man who felt he’d failed – is captivating.
There is nothing modern about this music. It is as ornate and carefully wrought as piano playing can get. But to hear the strains of Santa Lucia ,of Moszkowski’s marvelous interpretations of Offenbach and the Caprice of Bizet ( well done him, Bizet was scarcely a success when the brilliant Pole took him up) is a rare treat. Moszkowski deserves to be remembered as the Stephen Sondheim of his day, an arranger and composer who unlike him (their lives overlap strangely in time if not place )never saw his life bloom.
Just before his death composers from all around the world gathered to raise money to keep him going. All the major composers and musicians of the day foregathered in Carnegie Hall and made Moszowkski a mint. It was too late . He died soon afterwards, still sceptical about is own talent and exhausted by life’s sufferings.
Well done Ms Hirose to open him up to the world again. Your playing is exquisite. Put on this hot new release and re-find a medley ( what a forgotten word) of top tunes executed with lyrical skill. It’s some time since piano playing was so very entertaining. The idea of a Greatest Hits of the romantic age’ is almost anathema to the modern world of discography, but well done this publisher for allowing this glorious set of arrangements to flower into a world where we badly need some sparkle.
