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[Off The Record]
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PAUL JACOBS IN RECITAL

(ARBITER RECORDS)

Pianist Paul Jacobs was one of the unsung heroes of the New York music scene. An authority on contemporary music, he was the New York Philharmonic’s official pianist from 1961 until his death, from AIDS, in 1983. His premature passing deprived us of a proper appreciation of his legacy. Arbiter Records, whose reissue of his outstanding Busoni recordings for Nonesuch was one of last year’s highlights, has now brought out a collection of live recordings of material he never recorded commercially. What’s fascinating in these performances is hearing Jacobs’s probing intelligence wedded to an impetuosity and brio he seems to have revealed only to live audiences.

Thus his playing of Beethoven — the Waldstein and Opus 10 No. 3 sonatas — features extremes of tempo and a sensitivity to odd harmonies and off-kilter phrases. The first movement of the Waldstein goes by at a gallop, but Jacobs favors a dry, unpedaled sound, as if to lay bare everything in the score. The octave runs at the end of the sonata ripple past in a haze that seems to prefigure Debussy. It’s thought-provoking, even when it doesn’t quite work. He’s on surer ground with Busoni’s reworking of a Bach prelude and fugue, and with the steely dissonances and waltz pastiches of Ravel’s Valses nobles et sentimentales. Best of all is a mad dash through Manuel de Falla’s Fantasía Baetica, smoldering virtuoso music that must have left its audience breathless.

The CD’s conclusion — a home recording of Jacobs playing Chambonnières, a French Renaissance master, on the harpsichord — is an oddly fitting testament to his breadth of vision and musical curiosity. This is an important release that should raise the profile of a much underrated artist. Given the difficulties small labels have had lately, it may not be widely available. Order it through Arbiter’s Web site — www.arbiterrecords.com — if you can’t find it in stores, because it’s very much worth seeking out.

BY DAVID WEININGER

Issue Date: November 15 - 22, 2001

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