Voyage of discovery

The pianist Karl-Andreas Kolly, lecturer at the Zurich University of the Arts, is making a name for himself with an unconventional CD series on the MDG label. He has made some remarkable discoveries, such as the piano music of Felix Blumenfeld or the underrated piano pieces by Josef Suk. Now he presents his fourth recording, a carefully selected cross-section of the highly virtuoso piano music of the Lausanne pianist Émile-Robert Blanchet (1877-1943).

MDG stands for a sound ideal that is as authentic as possible and in no way manipulated by producers Werner Dabringhaus and Reimund Grimm. The recording venue and the instrument are individually selected to achieve this. The Blanchet CD was recorded in the concert hall of Marienmünster Abbey on the Steinway D "Manfred Bürki" from 1901. It is astonishing how well the original sound can be perceived: the resonating room acoustics and the characteristics of the grand piano.

Émile-Robert Blanchet was a brilliant pianist and as such toured the world. He cultivated close contacts with the great colleagues of his time, as the dedications of his pieces testify: Robert Casadesus, Alfredo Casella, Clara Haskil, Charles-Marie Widor and many others. In Berlin and Weimar, he even worked with Ferruccio Busoni, as can be seen from the knowledgeable booklet text by Walter Labhart.

Blanchet was also a lecturer at the Lausanne Conservatory until 1917, where he also served as director for four years. This is probably why he composed many preludes and etudes for virtuoso pedagogical purposes. He also wrote the book Technique Moderne du Piano (Paris 1930), which goes as far as polytonal arpeggios and a mute touch.

Kolly's selection from Blanchet's cycles of Préludes and Études is dramaturgically skillful. The tempi and playing instructions are very precisely indicated, such as "Vivace, leggiero" in the Prelude op. 10 No. 4, where Kolly reveals a leggiero of stupendous virtuosity and transparency. The cycle of variations op. 13 also thrives on the striking tension of the tempi, for example in the "Presto, ma distinto" or the "Con intimo sentimento".

The increasing complexity and more powerful bulkiness in the later works is also interesting. Take the Rhapsody Turque (Mouharbè) op. 51, in which Blanchet processes his personal travel impressions. Kolly is able to heighten the harmonic agglomerations in a gripping manner, keeps the floating sounds wonderfully clean in terms of pedal technique and knows how to shape the rhapsodic arc with a sovereign overview despite the tricky technique. Blanchet could not have wished for a more committed advocate for his advanced piano music.