Ombres et Visions: Nour Ayadi’s impressive new disc

A dialogue between eras, an interior path, a musical reflection on the fragility of our aesthetic benchmarks: so promised Paris Conservatoire-trained pianist Nour Ayadi for this Scala Music release.

This is Ayadi’s second album for Scala Music, and it speaks of the dissolution of tonality: Bach/Busoni cedes to pure Busoni; Liszt himself moves from a Transcendental Study to a Bagatelle that has lost its tonality, while a reading of Dante brings interior (and external!) turmoil.

Two major works bookend the recital: the famous Bach/Busoni Chaconne and that Liszt “Dante Sonata” from the end of the second book of the Years of Travel.

The Bach Chaconne is a brilliant, intelligent, involving performance. Voice-leading is superb: this is grand, impressive, but never over-pedalled. It is also a statement of history, of heritage, of background to a world that will shatter, backed up by more Bach/Busoni: the chorale, Nun komm, der Heiden Heland, BWV 659:

The Busoni version of BWV 659 is very of that composer: serious, dark. The original is brighter, as Masaaki Suzuki reminds in his performance:

If the Bach/Busoni offers a crossroads: to Bach pure, or to Busoni, Busoni’s own Sonatina No. 2 (BV 259, 1912) states clearly which path is taken. Heady, complex, the score poses innumerable challenges in its 10-minute duration, and Ayadi plungers herself into them. She has the full measure of the piece, especially in its contrasts between extreme activity and extreme stasis. from post-Lisztian virtuosity (with added harmonic bite) and Modernist chorale:

Ayadi’s Gretchen am Spinnrade is extraordinary: I have heard many play this, including Lazar Berman and Evgeny Kissin (both live), but Ayadi’s is exceptional, the inner-voice semiquavers absolutely invoking the spinning wheel, the moment of arrestment at the kiss perfectly judged. Her right-hand cantabile is exactly that – it is as if she sings, just without words:

The final tranche of Liszt works beautifully, the inner voices of “Chasse-neige” from the Transcendental Studies a logical extension of those from Schubert’s song; the right-hand cantabile only emphasises the similarities, while the greater swells remind us that this is pure Liszt:

The mysteries of Nuages Gris, S 199 are gloriously done by Ayadi. While there is a undeniable G-Minor implication to the music, Liszt takes the music to places on the very borders of tonality; no wonder the Bagatelle sans tonalité follows on so naturally:

The “other” Liszt sonata, that which ends the second book of travel, completes this fine disc. Ayadi’s performance is an ideal blend of intelligence (it sounds as if she might have been influenced in that regard by Brendel), and spontaneity. Attack is superb – simple octaves perfectly placed against fiery pyrotechnics. Ayadi certainly has the technique: remember one of her previous discs includes the infamous Stravinsky Petrushka pieces.

Nour Ayadi’s next concerts are recitals given at the Festival Chopin Nohant, June 27-28. Ombres et Visions is available at Amazon here; her previous disc for Scala, Carnaval, here; her disc on the Passavant label of Schumann’s Etudes symphoniques and Stravinsky’s Petrushka pieces is available at Amazon, but at the remarkable (and somewhat random) price of £65.28. Streaming below.