Thursday, April 14. 2011
… but what I suspected may happen has happened – Limelight has removed the review of the Leatham Music CD from their website. Interestingly, there are still summaries of the comments made about the review there, but clicking on the review link causes electronic mayhem on their website.
So they’ve admitted the review was crap, which of course it was. But the damage has been done – the review was printed in the March edition of Limelight and so people (I imagine many, since Limelight has an Australia-wide distribution and is the official organ, as it were, of ABC Classic FM) now have totally the wrong idea about the recording, the artists, and the piano.
The question is, what are Limelight going to do to redress the balance? They have caused significant and unnecessary damage to Leatham Music and they now have a responsibility to correct that. It will be interesting to see what they do.
Probably nothing, but one lives in hope.
This is my considered review of the CD.
“Leatham Music is a small, boutique recording studio based in Albury, NSW. They are dedicated to producing recordings by Australian-based musicians involving the much-admired Stuart & Sons piano. This latest recording by the Melbourne-based duo Igor Machlak and Olga Kharitonova showcases an interesting range of music by Schubert and Brahms on one hand, and Stravinsky and Ravel on the other.
The first thing that strikes one on listening is the quality and clarity of the sound. Unlike some other commercial recordings of the Stuart piano, the inherent timbre of the Stuart is faithfully reproduced here and the interplay between the two pianists is able to be clearly heard.
The next thing is the quality of the performance. Machlak and Kharitonova have been performing together for quite some time now, and their understanding of each other and their teamwork is quite exemplary. Their technical prowess is self-evident, and it is clear especially in the Brahms that they are thoroughly enjoying what they are doing.
The selection of music gives sufficient rein to what one might call the classic repertoire in Schubert and Brahms, and then superimposing the more esoteric and, to the listener, less comfortable works of Ravel and Stravinsky. The overall mix, whilst varied, is ultimately quite satisfying.
The CD is recommended listening.”
Wednesday, April 13. 2011
…but this review by Greg Keane in the Limelight magazine, the monthly guide from the ABC on music, arts and culture, really p!@#$% me off in a big way. It is a ‘review’ of a CD for piano four hands by Igor Machlak and Olga Kharitonova, produced by Leatham Music in Albury on a 2.9m Stuart & Sons grand piano. In case the nutters at Limelight decide to remove this review (they haven’t yet) I’m quoting it in its entirety here, together with the somewhat acerbic but measured response I posted on the website. I don’t think I need to comment any further.
“Sensitive and imaginative playing on an Australian Stuart & Sons piano.
I was somewhat baffled by this CD. It’s clearly a promotional tool for Stuart & Sons Pianos on the new Leatham Music label, produced by Gregory Lewis and engineered by Trevor Doddridge in All Saints Anglican Church, Albury. Fair enough, but the title, Beauties and Beasts, becomes rather confusing. The inclusion of the four-handed arrangement of Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite is fine, especially since one movement is called Beauty and the Beast.
The next piece, Part 1 of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, is understandable, although the abrupt, unresolved ending makes it more like a “bleeding chunk”. I was also reminded of Stravinsky’s remark that Karajan’s first interpretation of his Rite of Spring was a “pet savage, not a real one!”
The second two works on the CD hardly reinforce the theme: Schubert’s Waltzes, Op 18A, radiate Biedemeier charm and Gemütlichkeit but are hardly in the same ethereal world as Ravel’s Mother Goose and I can’t for the life of me see anything primitive, let alone bestial, in the selection of Brahms’s Hungarian Dances, which complete the disc. Despite the rather jolly, not to say robust, appearance of the pianists, the playing is sensitive and imaginative, especially in the Ravel and the sound is excellent.
Where I think the CD falls down is when Igor Machlak mentions in the liner notes that the piano has four pedals (instead of the usual three) and four extra keys at each end of the keyboard. Surely a musical justification for using the Stuart Piano would have been in order.”
And my response:
“This review is shallow, amateurish and disappointingly banal. Limelight should be ashamed of letting this drivel be published. Mr Keane seems to be fixated on the title without any knowledge of the considerations behind the choice. It is not a promotional tool for Stuart pianos - Leatham Music has no connection with Stuart & Sons other than possessing (and recording from) a Stuart & Sons piano. Only once does he make (general) comment on the quality and sound of the playing, which given his fixation above is equivalent to damning with faint praise. His description of the pianists as "jolly, not to say robust" is pointless and insulting. Then in the last paragraph he makes the worst mistake of all - focussing on and bemoaning the lack of musical justification for the use of the Stuart piano. Firstly, surely no justification is needed and secondly, he conveniently forgets to mention that Mr Machlak, in the very next paragraph, writes - "I realised immediately that this was something special. The tone was unique and the key action very comfortable and true". Leatham Music is to be commended for their efforts to bring this and other CDs to light. It is a pity that Mr Keane's so-called review adds nothing of any value whatsoever to their achievements in this CD and, moreover, only reflects badly on himself and Limelight.”
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