STEVEN GORDON PLAYS CHOPINWhen it comes to record labels, RR is a name I trust and respect. The artists they use are not household names but the music the comes out truly impresses me. It reminds me of the first time I visited the SF Bay Area, and while walking around Union Square I heard a guy singing an operatic piece but I couldn't see him while panning the surroundings. I walked and walked, following his voice till I spotted him in front of a store. I was glued to his voice, his music, and while definitely an unknown artist, his music forever stuck in my mind.
The performer here, one Steven Gordon, is a relatively unknown pianist in the recording circles, but since I love the works of Chopin, specially piano solos, I took a stab at this early RR recording, the 2nd in its catalog and recorded way back in 1976. At the first strike of the piano, I knew this is a special piano recording. As the music went one, I felt this is the best sounding Chopin piano recording I have ever heard in my home. The timbre and dynamics, from soft to loud is astonishingly faithful to what I remember a grand piano to sound like. And the ambiance of the recording venue, the Druid Temple in SF, is well captured. Air and space cushioning around the piano tones. Truly beautiful. Almost 40 minutes of Chopin passed by like it was only 5. And a strange thing, while listening to this album, I am reminded of the scene in Silence of the Lambs, wherein Hannibal was listening to a solo piano recording while he was in a big cage, his face was so engrossed on the music it seemed he was ecstatic. While I'm not saying I'm a serial killer, a beautiful piano recording can certainly drive me to ecstasy.