Although I am fairly sure the Kremer performance is slightly better, I can't find it in its entirety like this performance. This performance is so incisive that my senses are fairly STUNG by the incredible musicianship and shaping going on. Would have loved to be in this audience....better, to have been the keyboardist in this performance. WOW.
Its a dark stormy night. A couple whose car has broken down (its a bit rocky horror) look for help at a nearby house. It's a beautiful, old hous. But no ones in. Calling for help, they hear what sounds like a piano coming from what could be a ballroom and start to investigate. The music is discordant, dissonant and fragmented like they're hearing distorted echos of a half remembered concerto. They can hear the dynamics loud and clear, but the notes bounce around, sometimes making it to the ears, sometimes not (like listening to music through a wall). As we approach midnight, more music punctures its way through. Is there a ball happening? As the clock strikes midnight, the veil lifts and like the scene out of the shining they are transported across the veil. By now they're terrified,yet as the tango breaks they suddenly find themselves in the dance with the other guests. They cant seem to stop dancing. The veil is closing. They see it closing, but they cant stop dancing. BONG!!! its almost over. BONG! They cant stop. No more bongs. The house consumes them.
Of course, as the political and religious authorities of the Russian Federation remind us (and mind you, they are spiritual), this is the decadent music of the corrupted (nihilistic) Western world. But I like it. Immensely.
