The rumbling basses and hot-wired dotted rhythms of Oginski's A minor Polonaise, for example, are guaranteed to knock you out of your listening chair, and ditto for the earthy swing of Landowska's own Bourrée D'Auvergne No. 2 and her arrangement of the traditional wedding song "The Hop". Whether Chopin's C major Op. 56 No. 2 Mazurka should be played on a harpsichord or not doesn't matter, because Landowska's phrasing and instinctive inner rhythm surpass all piano performances I know of this composition. Her italicized 1946 remakes of Scarlatti's D major L. 418 and D minor L. 423 differ from her faster, more direct earlier HMV versions, yet her shifting registrations and subtle legato articulation cast a hypnotic spell in Couperin's Les Barricades Mistérieuses.

What extraordinary finger definition and textural clarity she brings to Handel's Harmonious Blacksmith variations! What gorgeous, rippling sonorities she divines from the Bach-Vivaldi D major concerto's rolled chords in the slow movement! Purists may scoff at the octave transpositions and unconventional gearshifts Landowska employs in Mozart's Turkish March and D major Rondo K. 485, yet few have judged the D major Menuetto's dissonances to such profound effect. Let's hope that this welcome release signifies a comprehensive Landowska/RCA series from Testament, including her two piano Mozart LPs from the late 1950s that still await their first CD appearance. [1/10/2006]