Maria João Pires - Complete Solo Recordings (20CD) (2014)

No sooner did Warner Classics release its edition of Maria João Pires’ complete Erato catalog than Deutsche Grammophon issued its own 20-disc collection containing the pianist’s entire solo sessions for the label packaged in original jacket facsimiles. For the most part it’s an impressive body of work that attests to the pianist’s world-class reputation.

Bach’s Partita No. 1, English Suite No. 3, and French Suite No. 3 are contrapuntally clear yet embrace a fuller dynamic range than exemplified by other similarly style-concious pianists. The Partita, in particular, stands out for some unusual articulations (the Praeludium trills) and a near-breakneck Allemande. Regarding Pires’ hit-and-miss DG Beethoven recital (read review here), I prefer her comparably-detailed yet more direct and invigorating Erato “Moonlight” and Op. 109 sonatas. But her DG Chopin Preludes Op. 28 are bolder and more poetic than the smaller-scaled Erato versions.

I remember hearing Pires’ Chopin Nocturnes for the first time with my late colleague Harris Goldsmith, and he likened her spontaneous touches and dabs of color to the 1950s Guiomar Novaes Nocturne cycle–a fair and accurate assessment. I refer readers to my review about another two-disc Chopin compilation for more specific details, as well as her Schubert D. 845 and D. 960 sonata coupling.

It’s not easy to fuse simplicity and personal poetry, but that’s exactly what Pires does in the Impromptus, Three Klavierstücke, and the Moments Musicaux. The relatively unfamiliar D. 593 Scherzi come to vivid life in Pires’ supple hands, as does the A minor D. 784 sonata’s brilliant, gnarly finale. The latter proves slower and less interesting in Ricardo Castro’s hands, although he and Pires deliver a warmer yet more dramatic F minor Fantasy than her leaner, more tightly-knit Erato collaboration with Hüseyin Sermet.

Pires’ DG Schumann recital offers a Waldszenen that reveals a wider range of nuance, dynamic contrast, and textural interplay in comparison to her relatively chaste Erato traversal. She dispatches the Arabeske in an almost impressionistic manner full of alluring half tints and a strangely rushed second minor-key episode. Faschingsschwank aus Wien’s central movements fare best, but the outer movements would have benefited from firmer rhythmic drive in the manner of Richter and Michelangeli. Pires’ translucent Brahms Op. 117 Intermezzi from a 2013 Wigmore Hall recital fill out the Schumann disc.

By and large, Pires’ complete Mozart sonata cycle for DG conveys higher levels of characterization, specificity of articulation, tonal gradation, and harmonic tension when measured alongside her excellent and similarly conceived 1974 Denon Mozart cycle (available from Brilliant Classics.) To cite one example, our sound clips enable you to compare the sharper detached articulation and additional dynamic hairpins at the outset of Pires’ DG K. 333 B-flat major sonata’s Allegretto grazioso alongside the Denon version.

Pires also observes all written repeats for DG, which sometimes skews a sonata’s overall proportions. For example, the K. 332 F major sonata’s scampering Rondo finale becomes overly long and less succinct in relation to its two preceding movements. Here I prefer Pires’ slightly faster and drier Denon reading. Still, collectors who consider Pires’ Mozart recordings to be the centerpiece of her DG solo catalog won’t get an argument from me. Jessica Duchen’s annotations are informative and admiring without the usual promotional gush. Will Pires’ complete DG chamber and concerto recordings receive big box treatment next? -- Jed Distler