Stravinsky-Agosti - Three Movements from The Firebird (Rana)

Agosti’s fearsome transcription of The Firebird is so maniacally colourful that listening to it feels a bit like a Kandinsky painting just punched you in the face. The number of canny decisions that have to made to wrestle all of Stravinsky’s ingenious orchestration into something that coherently fits on a piano is kind of ridiculous, and the fact that this transcription even works, on any level, is a miracle.

The variety of touch, articulation, dynamic control, rhythmic precision, and rubato which Rana brings to bear in just under 12 minutes of music is pretty hard to believe. In the Infernal Dance, for instance, the melodies skittering madly through different registers connect perfectly, and the voicing is never less than inspired (see 0:51, the rubato-laden melody at 1:49). The Lullaby is basically a Ravel-esque study in dynamic tiering, and some of the stuff Rana pulls off at the quieter end of the spectrum is breathtaking (see the top voice at 7:03, the contrast between the light and dark colour at the piano’s top and bottom registers starting at 8:02). The Finale here is the only performance I know of where the tremolos are really played très fondu (meltingly) – you can barely hear the individual notes, and even the scales dissolve into these huge, brilliant ripples of sound. The gradually increasing tempo over the course of this last section is also wonderfully handled (and reminds me a bit of Stravinsky’s own conducting, actually). And that gloriously long last chord – after hearing this one, you’ll think that all the others are too rushed.

0:00 – Infernal Dance
5:05 – Lullaby
8:42 – Finale