Kapell Rediscovered

The recording is wonderful despite the noise, and the performance is masterful. But while the mp3 files contain information for each track (album, performer, title, opus, movement), there is no mention of the composers. Most of the pieces are popular enough it's obvious. But really, this is basic and should be a part of each file.

Although this CD is derived from over the air Australian radio in a bygone era, it is important for anyone who wants as much Kapell material as possible. The Rach 3 alone is worth the admission fee. If you love Kapell you will want this CD for the music, and you will ignore the sometimes scratchy surface noise. I am overjoyed that this material was discovered and published. Get it if you want to hear what piano interpretation can be from a young, brilliant, American virtuoso.

When I first listened to this recording (it came two days ago) I thought that Kapell's sound was agressive, (it is), he rushed (he does) and that his sense of proportion was often out of whack with what's really going on (sometimes it definitely is). But when all was said and done, I realized that despite those moments where things get slightly out of hand, the overall idea, the ebb and flow of many of these pieces, was consistently beautiful and harmonious in the sense that everything seemed to have its natural place in the scheme of things.

I'll be as brief as I am able to be. The opening Rachmaninoff concerto is a very noisy recording, but in my professional opinion, had that noise been removed, there would remain NO aura of Kapell's sound, which is in abundance here. There is a generalized broadcast haze hanging over the entire set. At big fortissimi in the concerto the sound tends to break up, but I don't think this is Kapell's doing. This is a jury-rigged recording setup and that's the culprit. Kapell proves that he can handle any tempo or gradation of the sound. There is a clear legato that is even audible through the swooshing noise that occasionally shows up. And the cadenza in the first movement gives the sense of exactly what the CD is going to be about: lots of energy with plenty in reserve.

The Bach is lovely. It is delicate without being narcissistic. It's the sort of Bach one hears from Landowska, although the rhythm is not as spectacular as hers; the other Bach proponent that comes to mind is Arrau. You'll have to hunt to find those CDs now.

The Mussorkgsky is played as it should be - with amazing brilliance.

The second CD runs the gamut. Kapell's Mozart is a welcome relief from many of today's tedious one dimentional conceptions of "music for babies"!

The Debussy is the BIG surprise. I'm reminded a little of Gieseking, but Kapells is fuller than his on the older 78s. Its the surprise of the set.

The Chopin has some problems from time to time, but that's because I'm comparing the pieces to my favorite performances. When I stop doing that they seem far more successful in their own right. Kapell does have a tendency to rush the middle of phrases, and that occasionally gets in the way as you can sense the next transition will arrive awkwardly. The Barcarolle is fat and juicy. The Nocturne, Op. 55, #2 in E flat, is almost as great as Friedman's unique vision. This gem scares most pianists to death because of its many sustained voices all going at once. Kapell givse it a very good shot, but his voicing is often a bit heavy. For a laugh, try the usually wonderful Rubinstein if you want to hear it go completely off the tracks! I do believe the best known Chopin interpreter is actually sight reading in the recording session.

Prokofiev's Seventh Sonata is the capper to this set. At first the rushing bothered me. I am almost cultish about Glenn Gould's extraordinary playing of this piece, both on CD and video. This despite the fact that Gould more often than not leaves me utterly bored. To the contrary, the third movement tocatta, is played just a bit slower than is usually heard. Gould's is still the most fantastic I've ever found for rhythmic constancy mixed with variation, while never once breaking the perfect pulse. But Kapell pushes and pulls and ultimately manages to put everything in its place, and all this on the live concert stage.

Concerning the controversy over the sound; on first hearing it is thoroughly evident that what Jon Samuels, the producer/engineer, first had to work with was a near disaster. There were noises caused not by over playing of the acetates. Samuels makes a very clear eyed argument for his work in his own notes in the booklet. Most of the noises that are left behind are lengthy in nature, and to remove something of that sort will also create a "new" set of sounds that are even less appealing, because they generally resemble nails on the chalk board. For those of us who started with '78s I say don't worry. And if you are just coming to the party via an Ipod, now you can see what we used to put up with from all the major record companies. My hat's off to Jon Samuels for one of the most balanced noise reduction attempts ever to be put on commercial CD. It is a joy to find an engineer who like his fellow traveler, Ward Marston, doesn't remove all noise only to create artificial sounds that are explained away with nonsense by those who operate under the credo of "cleaning up ALL extraneous noise", simply because they are able to do so. No matter what anyone may say, removing all noise would simply mean that Kapell might as well be Bela Lugosi. One wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Better to gently "take off the curse", as my mentor/engineer used to tell me, from the noisy patch so that one can at least accept the noise because all the music is still audible and the noise is now dimished if not gone assuring NO other sounds have been introduced.

Finally, throughout the second CD (I listened on Sennheiser HD600 headphones) I could hear RF, or "radio frequency noise". That is, the recording cables or mics were acting as receivers and occasionally you can hear people talking at a very low level in quieter moments. I did't really hear this on my speakers, but my AC is running right now :)

Overall, this is a great compilation, mostly heretofore unknown to us; Get it while its on the shelves!

It is extremely moving to hear these recordings of Kapell which we didn't know existed. He was such a major talent who died so young.

The first thing that's amazing about these recordings is that they exist at all. As for the music... wow... There is sensitivity and passion which reaches through the years and the technical limits of these recordings to touch us. But what really amazes me is that even with the extraneous noises, I can still hear incredible clarity and precision in his playing.

One of the important skills of a pianist is to make the melody sing beautifully above the other notes, which frequently come across as a wave, blur or rumble of notes, especially in 19th Century music. In Kapell's playing on these recordings, not only do the melodies sing, but every single note plays a precise role with clarity, even in the Chopin Scherzo. It has given me a better musical understanding of these pieces than ever before.

I've rated this only 4 stars because it is not something I listen to over and over just for pleasure, because of the noise. But it is certainly something all music buffs and especially piano students would do well to listen carefully to.