While not for everybody -- fans of flawless pianism should keep their distance --
Wilhelm Kempff's performances of Schubert's Wanderer Fantasie and two sets of Impromptus are nevertheless among the most honored and even loved performances of the works ever recorded. Although his technique had always been old-school "what's a few missed notes in the face of such profundities?" German piano playing, by the time these recordings were made in the late '60s,
Kempff wasn't up to the rigors of the Wanderer Fantasie -- or even some of the harder pages of the Impromptus. The big chords at the climax of the Wanderer's Adagio and the double octaves counterpoint of the closing Allegro were beyond
Kempff by this point in his career, and in a lesser musician, such grievous deficiencies would be unpardonable. Yet there are such profundities in
Kempff's interpretation that generations of listeners have embraced these otherwise fatal flaws as the signs of depth and insight. And they're right to do so.
Kempff understands the poetic lyricism and the emotional restlessness of the Impromptus, grasps their moods and nuances and re-creates them in ideally balanced and tonally radiant performances. While there's no denying that there are more flawlessly played recordings of the Impromptus -- the sweetly singing
Perahia and the richly evocative
Schiff --
Kempff's Impromptus along with the slower pages of his Wanderer touch something deeper than the merely flawless. They touch the infinite. In these 1998 digital re-releases, DG's late-'60s stereo sound is cleaner but a bit harder than the original LPs.