Norman Lebrecht's CD of the Week - 11 April

James Rhodes: Now Would All Freudians Please Stand Aside (Signum) ****

Few pianists can change the sound of a concert grand without tampering with its insides, as John Cage did, or adopting an eccentric regime in the manner of Glenn Gould. James Rhodes, bookmark the name, does it without resorting to gimmickry.

His sound, from the opening of the Bach Toccata in Ferruccio Busoni’s transcription, cannot be mistaken for that of any other pianist, alive or dead. It is confrontational, brittle, intermittently seductive.

Further adjectives are superfluous and potentially misleading. The sound is what it is, like it or not. My personal reaction veered from curiosity to irritation to wonderment and all the way back again. Rhodes, whose last record was titled Razor Blades, Little Pills and Big Pianos, has a turbulent psychiatric history and no formal music education. He is 34 years old and has just been signed by the rock division of Warners, more for his attitude than for the music he plays, which is irreproachably classical. The Bach pieces here ring true and the Beethoven sonata, number 30, opus 109, is done without excessive introspection. If anything, it is a little underdone, too matter-of-fact for comfortable listening, a tad lacking in tenderness. Nevertheless, it clings to the ear long after the final note and the residue is by no means unpleasant. There is an original talent at work on this piano, and we are going to hear much more of it.

Three more piano CDs to try

Graham Fitkin: Circuit (Bis) ***

A Cornish minimalist, Fitkin plays two pianos against each other and an orchestra at varying speeds rather as John Cage did with gramophone noises though to more pleasurable, hypnotic effect. Kathryn Stott and Noriko Ogawa are the soloists in the 20-minute Circuit and other pieces. The longer you listen, the more you are drawn in.

Danzas Argentinas (Avie) ***

This album is a border bender. Of the three composers, only Ginastera is Argentine. The liveliest pieces are by the Cuban Lecuona – renowned for Malaguena - and the emptiest by the 19th century American travelling player, Louis Gottschalk. Claudia Schellenberger catches all the right rhythms in a fun compilation.

Mahler/Cooke: 10th symphony (divine art) **

All of Mahler’s symphonies were published in piano versions in his lifetime, apart from the unfinished tenth. That omission is repaired by composer Ribald Stevenson and pianist Christopher White, using Deryck Cooke’s fleshed-out score when they could probably have worked it out from Mahler’s own sketches. The resultant curiosity has its moments, without ever capturing the terror in the piece.