Aaron Pilson is a thirty-five-year-old Austrian pianist who numbers Andras Schiff, the late Lars Vogt and Daniel Barenboim among his mentors. Nothing daunted, he follows his previous recording of the Bach 48 Preludes and Fugues with the complete Chopin Etudes, stressing in interview Chopin's love of Bach and the need in the Etudes to cross the Rubicon from pragmatism to poetry, to a transcending of Chopin's cruel demands. Alas, here the Etudes remain Etudes, Pilson's physical bravura uncomplemented by subtler, more interior virtues. He can thunder(coming into his own is the last two Etudes of opus 25) but he cannot whisper, confide or caress. Sadly, Etude follows Etude in a dynamic range that rarely ventures outside a 'mezzo forte' to 'forte' limitation. No 2 from opus 10 is a stolid alternative to fleetness and there is a startling indifference to the dark, near Wagnerian harmony at the heart of No 6 in E flat minor.
Turning to opus 25, No 2 in F minor becomes a simple play of notes hardly inviting Liszt and Schumann's wonder(for Schumann this Etude was 'charming, dreamy and soft as the song of a child singing in its sleep'), Finally, the more delicate and restrained poetry of the 'Trois Nouvelles Etudes' wilts under such an abrasive assault.
Recorded competition in the Chopin Etudes is exceptional, with outstanding and in many cases memorable performances on offer. Cortot, the first recordings by Ashkenazy and Pollini, Murray Perahia(recorded 'before I get too old to play them decently'), Agustin Aneavas, and, most recently the astonishing Yunchan Lim all come to mind. Cziffra's mesmeric/infamous recording is essentially for those who view the Etudes as a trapeze act without a safety net. Sadly, it is difficult to see how Aaron Pilson figures in such exalted company.
Bryce Morrison