Freddy Kempf is apparently a madman. Who else would release a disc joining Mussorgsky's Pictures from an Exhibition,
Ravel's Gaspard de la nuit, and Balakirev's Islamey? Each piece is harder than the next: Pictures needs massive power, Gaspard requires enormous agility, and Islamey demands speed, strength, and Herculean stamina. Fortunately,
Kempf has all those qualities in apparent abundance. His Pictures soars, flies in Baba-Yaga, and triumphs against enormous sonorities in The Great Gates of Kiev.
Kempf's Gaspard is less brutal and more insidious. In
Kempf's hands, the shimmering arpeggios of Ondine glimmer and gleam while the spook show dynamic contrasts of "Scarbo" are simply spectacular. If his Gaspard is insidious,
Kempf's Islamey -- with its rapidly repeated notes and ever accelerating tempo -- is frankly seductive. There might be those listeners who find
Kempf less than persuasive in Pictures' dark Catacombs and Gaspard's gloomy Le Gibet, but even they will have to admit he has what it takes to conquer the most challenging works in the piano repertoire. BIS' super audio sound makes
Kempf's piano sound roughly the size of Montana. It may not be entirely accurately, but it certainly is imposing.