Byron Janis • Live On Tour
 ost audiophiles who know classical music will immediately
recognize pianist Byron Janis as a frequent performer on Mercury Living Presence Stereo
classics, like the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No.3 [Mercury SR 90283], Prokofiev
Piano Concerto Nos.1 and 3 [Mercury SR 90300], Encores [Mercury SR 90305], Liszt
Piano Concerto Nos.1 and 2 [Mercury SR 90329] and Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto
No.2 [Mercury SR 90260]. Janis, a student of Vladimir Horowitz who made his Carnegie
Hall debut at the age of 20, caught attention with these showpieces. The Mercury discs
have become part of the audiophiles’ collective consciousness because of Harry
Pearson's and Sid Marks's adulation in the pages of The Abso!ute Sound. Lesser
known are Janis's recordings for RCA throughout the 1950s. After these RCA and Mercury
records were released in the late 1950s and early 1960s, we heard little from Janis as a
performer, although he did make a splash in the late 1960s, when he discovered some rare
Chopin manuscripts. Janis has led a fascinating life: married since 1967 to Gary
Cooper’s daughter, the author of an autobiography and a disciple of the paranormal.
In 1973, he developed severe psoriatic arthritis in both hands and wrists, and he spent
the balance of his career focused on teaching.
Now, at the age of 90, Janis has taken on the task releasing his own earlier performances on his own label. This two-LP set is handsomely packaged in a foldout cover. The set is expensive -- currently $81.99 from Amazon -- so much is expected. What is not obvious until you have the set in hand, and are familiar with Janis’s medical condition, is that the performances were taken from 1982 and 1992, all from recitals he gave after developing arthritis in both of his hands and wrists, and the music appears to have been selected to accommodate his disability. There are no terribly challenging pieces -- a side of Haydn, a side of Chopin, a little Liszt and four Janis compositions round out the two discs. After an initial listen, I found nothing that made me want to listen a second time. For example, Chopin’s Sonata No.3 in B Minor, Op. 58, taken as a whole, is a very difficult technical challenge, but its third movement (largo), performed here, is the "easy" part. Compared to Martha Argerich’s version (from the very inexpensive five-CD set of all her DGG Chopin [Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft 00289 497 6068]), Janis’s version lacks interpretive shading and delicacy. It just plods along, where Argerich tells a story. Similarly, Janis’s performance of Chopin’s Nocturne in D Flat Op. 27 is limp and flabby. I pulled out a live performance by Maria Joćo Pires [Narody Institut Fryderyka NIFCCD 040] for comparison and found a magical performance that highlights Pires’s graceful touch and sense of structure. The 180-gram LPs are pressed at Third Man Records and are
dead quiet and perfectly flat. The sound of the recordings is quite good, although no
details are supplied. Taken from different concerts, and thus having some sonic
differences, the various performances sound full-range, with solid bass and somewhat
extended high-end sparkle. Still, I can't help thinking that a better way to honor Byron
Janis’s legacy than these LPs is to buy one of the great Mercury reissues from
Speakers Corner featuring him at the top of his game. |
