On his latest album for ABC Classics, Australian pianist Jayson Gillham (b. 1986) turns his eminently accomplished hands to the Etudes of Frédéric Chopin. There are 27 in total: Op. 10, Nos. 1–12, published in 1833, Op. 25, Nos. 1–12, published in 1837, and Trois nouvelles études, published without opus number in 1840–1.
As Scottish pianist and musicologist Roy Howat observes in his excellent liner notes, Chopin’s Etudes “combine the training of technical fluency with that of expressive mastery.” In this, they are a particularly complex combination of demanding: any deficiency in either area will render these short but spectacular studies lacklustre and flat. Luckily for us, Gillham’s technique is blistering, with his extraordinary clarity ensuring that even in the midst of Chopin’s most intense barrages of notes, none are buried. This is further enhanced by Gillham’s choice of piano – on the bright side – but complemented by a recording with just enough reverberant presence to truly make the notes glisten.
It’s hard to pick highlights, but there’s Op. 10, No. 3, with its impossibly perfect melody, a soliloquy at once measured, imploring, impassioned, resigned: an emotional universe in four minutes. Op. 25, Nos. 5 and 6, beguilingly odd, almost abstract in their wandering cascades, but shaped and phrased with absolute authority by Gillham. And after a thrilling ride through 27 “miniature worlds”, as Gillham has described the Etudes, Chopin’s Polonaise in A Flat (Op. 53) brings this program back to earth, a grounding conclusion to a monumental pianistic journey.
Composer: Chopin
Works: Etudes
Performer: Jayson Gillham p
Label: ABC CLASSIC ABCL0110D
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