Brahms [Ballade] Ballades, Op. 10.

Schubert Piano Sonata No. 4 in A minor, D537. Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (pf)

DG (Full price) (CD) 400 043-2. From 2532 017 (9/81).

Michelangeli treats the Gothic narratives of Brahms's Op. 10 Ballades with a formality of manner and a sensitivity to nuance which declare him to be a story-teller of no common order. The Ancient Mariner held the wedding guest with a glittering eye; Michelangeli holds us with his glittering touch. LP and Compact Disc provide here comparable qualities, both luminously conveying the sound of Michelangeli's piano which comes, as I remarked in my original review, with a special attestation of maturity. "An instrument of more than 60 years old was used in this recording," we are advised. Michelangeli himself will no doubt rejoice in the silent background and crystalline Brilliance of the Compact Disc sound: a medium he might have personally commissioned, so closely does it mirror some of his own sonic preoccupations. The performance of the Schubert Sonata is brilliantly and beautifully chiselled into shape. It may sound forbidding at first but the sturdy rhythms, fine nuances and chaste, luminous colours put us in touch not only with Schubert the gamesome local tunesmith but also with the composer who will one day write Winterreise and the time-defying measures of the slow movement of the late B flat Sonata, D960.

RO