“This was a musical and musicological experiment of the greatest density of experience and information! And I wish to add: this is clearly not just a scholastic and learned performance, but an accomplished and mature engagement with the music of two composers, which shows in a wonderful way its affinity, proximity, but also at times distance from it. Worth of being praised are the 24 Préludes by Chopin and Scriabin played by the young Belgian pianist Michèle Yuki Gurdal.
On CD 1 Michèle Yuki Gurdal plays the Préludes in the original sequence. With lovely care for the different sound and feeling nuances elicited by this music, she is attentive both to the minor and to the grand movements. But she also knows very well how to bind the pieces together, almost like a logical conclusion to complete a collection. Only in a sense we can speak of a cyclical structure in both sequences of music pieces.
Gurdal and her producer did not just recorded the two series of Préludes. On CD2 these are juxtaposed: one piece by Skrjabin follows one by Chopin. In a fascinating way, it becomes clear how similar these miniatures are both in their movement and for the atmosphere they suggest, and also how much inspiration Skrjabin must—no matter whether consciously or unconsciously—have drawn from Chopin’s music. I wish to quote the following Préludes, which most testify to the affinity between the two composers: nr. 1-4, 11, 13, 14, 17, 20, 21, and 23. A little softer, more loose connections are evoked by pieces nr. 8, 9, 15, 16, 18, and 24. Every listener—and I hope there will be many!—is free to figure for himself all the possible stylistic, technical and melodic points of contact between the two musicians.
Also the most difficult pieces, so e.g. op. 28 and 16, are lively and masterfully executed. They count as a further invitation to listen carefully to the entire juxtaposition of the two cycles of Préludes.
“The idea of letting different Préludes-cycles play next to each other is certainly nothing new. It is quite obvious, and yet this is done only seldom. The beautiful interpretation by Michèle Gurdal shows us that this idea can indeed work out very well especially by playing Préludes op. 28 by F. Chopin next to op. 11 by A. Skrjabin.
“A balance between tension and looseness was the keynote in the lively performance by the Belgian pianist Michèle Gurdal.
“…accomplished coordination and differentiation were the main qualities in “Kristallene Listurgie” and “Regenbogen”, in which the pianist Gurdal glided through different chords with exemplarily well-balanced touch and use of the pedal. The extremely intricate quartet unison showed the right precision and toughness by playing “Tanz der Raserei für die sieben Posaunen”. The clarinet player Ubbelohde performed the solo “Abgrund der Vögel” with a wonderfully nuanced expressive pathos.
“…This such a nice and modest pianist could create from the very beginning a concentrated, almost private atmosphere, which suits very well both the poetic exclusiveness of music and the intimacy of this peculiar time. In the introductory C-major-Prélude, the latent aria inspired by the music by J.S. Bach is presented in a keen fashion. Also the delicate Prélude in F-major is not played like an Etude, but rather like a fine improvisation. Gurdal was striving to look for something special in every single musical miniature, without giving the impression of achieving something affected and calculated in style. Everything sounded quite natural in movement and fluency, the music was—and this might indeed be a French quality—spontaneously flowing out of the melody.
The second part of the concert was even more successful. The artist took such an agogic and emotional freedom, which suited very well the spontaneous, open character of this music. The delicate morbidezza of the melancholic Skrjabin as well as his abrupt and ecstatic gestures were enlivened under Gurdal’s hands in many different ways.