For devotees -- "fans" seems like such an inadequate word to describe the depth of their fervor -- of the piano playing of
Wilhelm Kempff, this two-disc set of previously unissued recordings will be cause for rejoicing. Recorded for Westdeutscher Rundfunks Köln, these two discs document two separate performances. The first from October 20, 1956, features Schumann's Fantasie in C major, Op. 17, and Beethoven's Piano Sonata in C minor, Op. 111. The second from March 24, 1960, features Brahms' Six Piano Pieces, Op. 118, along with
Chopin's Waltz in C sharp minor, Berceuse in D flat major, and Three Impromptus, Opp. 29, 36, and 55, plus his Fantasia-Impromptu, Op. post. 66, with a bonus of Schubert's Fantasie for violin and piano, D. 934, performed with violinist Hedi Gigler. Many of these works were
Kempff standards. He had, for example, already recorded the Beethoven Sonata in 1951 and was to record the Schumann Fantasie in 1957. And many of the interpretations were likewise
Kempff standards. His poetic but rigorous Schumann, his dramatic but cogent Beethoven, his romantic but restrained Brahms, and his melancholy but by no means morbid
Chopin here are not very much different in conception from his studio recordings of the works. The difference between the live and the studio
Kempff boils down to two things: his execution and his inspiration. Live,
Kempff dropped more notes than he did in the studio, and while that's still not a lot of notes, it is more than listeners accustomed to
Brendel or
Pollini may find acceptable. More importantly,
Kempff was more often inspired live than he was in the studio, and there are passages here that radiate the white heat of re-creative energy. Check out the final pages of either Schumann's Fantasie or Beethoven's Sonata or the whole of the last of Brahms' Intermezzos, where
Kempff's playing comes close to blinding in its brilliance. As a whole these performances may not surpass his studio recordings, but anyone devoted to
Kempff will have to hear them, and anyone who wants to understand why anyone would be devoted to
Kempff should hear them, too. For five-decade-old radio broadcast recordings, the sound here is surprisingly clean and direct, if still quite distant.