Reviews

Recent reviews of Shostakovich Op.87 (released November 2009)

Graeme Kay, International Piano reviews Shostakovich 24 Preludes and Fugues Big Ears BE005 (January 2010)

The music needs to be delivered with commitment, sensitivity to the architecture and the often opaque emotions, and … love: this it receives from Colin Stone. Most listeners make a journey in their appreciation of Shostakovich, and as time passes since the composer's death, the music continues to emerge in new light. Stone is an artist who moves us forward along the path towards the emerging truth of his finely wrought music.

JD, Classic FM magazine reviews Shostakovich 24 Preludes and Fugues Big Ears BE005 (March 2010)

Shostakovich wrote his Preludes and Fugues in 1950 after the models of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier and the key scheme of Chopin's 24 Preludes, largely inspired by the playing of Tatyana Nikolaeva. Colin Stone plays them with tremendous beauty, affection and a sort of self-effacing brilliance: technically dazzling pieces such as the A minor Prelude have plenty of rapidity and glitter, yet without any hard edges or showoff brashness. Instead, his playing is sensible, well-reasoned and engaging; it's like listening to a fascinating discussion between the fugal voices about what Bach and Chopin really meant to the troubled Russian genius.

Louis Blois, DSCH JOURNAL No. 33 Shostakovich 24 Preludes and Fugues Big Ears BE005 (July 2010)

Here Stone serves up one of the most elegantly conceived sets of op. 87 since Vladimir Ashkenazy’s acclaimed cycle of more than a decade ago. This is not to say that the two versions are in any way identical. Stone’s interpretation stands apart from the drama and the moody evocations of Ashkenazy’s with a more reserved tonal palette. A comparison of Ashkenazy’s bold projection of Fugue No. 17 with Stone’s gentler coaxing of the same material is sufficient to underscore the difference. With a patent avoidance of extremes, conceits, and capricious surges, Stone not only pursues a more contemplative vision of the work, but one marked by a more studied objectivity. Case in point: the innocent manner in which he sidesteps the tearful temptations of Prelude No. 4. The playing is scrubbed clean of the melancholic strains often found in other renditions. The accompanying fugue blossoms from a similarly undampened slate. Likewise in the strumming arpeggios in Prelude No. 5, the pianist opts for brisk clarity in contrast to the more dreamy expeditions of Jalbert and Bond, among others. As in the remaining preludes and fugues, Stone finds a poetry of tactile grace and interpretive purity that reveal the music’s treasures in an appropriately lucid, pristine manner.In light of this self-effacing approach, Wanda Landowska’s well-known quip about interpreting Bach’s music may be resuscitated, “You play it your way, my dear, and I’ll play it HIS way.” In fact, Stone’s interpretations do not match up very strongly, at least in style, with the commercially available recordings of the composer’s often technically imperfect performances. Just the same, every note in Stone’s well-tempered interpretation seems to have been examined and rendered to perfection. One may admire the evenness of his touch in the smoothly spinning runs of Preludes Nos. 2 and 21, and in the velvety tones he elicits from Prelude and Fugue No. 17. At times some of Shostakovich’s whimsical japing, as found in Prelude No. 8, can sound a little regulated, as do the contradictory taunts in Prelude No. 15. Yet it’s in the architecture of the work that Stone shines. The four animated voices of Fugue No. 12 never compete for prominence but are rather cast into pellucid relief as the music steers to its peak. His Fugue No. 24 is exquisitely realised, its accelerando played with gradually escalating lines of tension that build with consummate symphonic majesty and breadth. In another monumental entry, Fugue No 8, Stone keeps power in reserve as he lays bare the world-weariness of its doggedly insistent theme. Stone’s one indulgence, if one may call it that, it is the very broad tempo he takes in Fugue No. 1 (timing at 4:53), apparently taking after David Jalbert’s even more extended traversal (at 5:10). One of the strong points of Stone’s reading is his ability to underline the individual voices of the fugues with the utmost transparency. He brings out the gentle phrases of the five-voiced Fugue No. 13 with consummate grace, and likewise teases apart the four tenacious voices of Fugue No. 6 with peerless clarity. The two minutes of chromatic fury raised in the four-voiced Fugue No. 15 merit particular notice. What a difference eight or nine seconds make in the interpretation of this twistiest, most denselypacked of the set. Some will find Jenny Lin’s (2:09) steel-girdered version cautious to a fault. Kori Bond (2:00) starts off well but then flails helplessly amid the choppy waters; while David Jalbert’s hurtling cyclone of notes (1:42) leaves the listener dazzled, if somewhat gasping for breath. In his version Stone (1:50) seems to have found just the right balance between speed, spontaneity, and clear articulation. His is as triumphant a performance of the fugue as we’ve heard since Ashkenazy’s astonishingly brisk version (1:46).Some may prefer a more idiosyncratic approach to the Preludes and Fugues. In wiping the slate clean of pre-established notions, Stone enables the listener to hear the work anew and unsullied – meticulously wrought by a musical intelligence that is by no means devoid of spontaneity and passion. Stone offers his listeners an exquisitely sculpted, beautifully controlled rendition that finds a distinguished place in the recording canon. The intimate acoustic of the recording is well matched to the subtle focus of the interpretation. Stone’s perceptive liner notes are also well matched to his musical insights.

Jens F. Laurson , Musicweb-international.com Shostakovich 24 Preludes and Fugues Big Ears BE005 (February 2010)

Colin Stone’s is a remarkable achievement. His release can hold its own next to Scherbakov and Ashkenazy. Read more: http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2010/Feb10/Shostakovich24_bigears005_98530.htm#ixzz0wTqcrsO0

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