常時英心:言葉の森から 1.0

約10年間,はてなダイアリーで英語表現の落穂拾いを行ってきました。現在はAmeba Blogに2.0を開設し,継続中です。こちらはしばらくアーカイブとして維持します。

helter-skelter adv

チャイコフスキーのピアノ協奏曲のレビューからです。私は今まで20種類近くの演奏を聴きましたが、ホロヴィッツ/セル盤が一番好きです。この記事では、アルゲリッチ版の紹介があったので読んでみました。
赤字の部分ですが、liveはもちろんスタジオ盤の対比としての「ライブ盤」のことでしょう。helter-skelterは主にイギリス英語で「らせん形のすべり台」(『ジーニアス英和辞典 第4版』大修館)でご存知かと思われます。ここでは、アルゲリッチコンドラシンの録音の様子を表しています。
helter-skelterは副詞で"done quickly, in a disorganized way"(LDOCE)という意味があります。ただ速いだけでなく、「慌ただしさ」を感じさせる演奏なのでしょうか。アルゲリッチの演奏は確かにテンポが速い(速すぎる)ものが多いです。機会があれば聞いてみたいと思います。(Minnesota)

Additional Recommendations

Martha Argerich, **Nicolas Economou (pfs) *Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra / Claudio Abbado

Tchaikovsky’s First Concerto has already appeared twice on disc from Martha Argerich in complementary performances: live and helter-skelter on Philips with Kondrashin, studio and magisterial with Dutoit on DG. Now, finely recorded, here’s a third, live recording with the BPO and Claudio Abbado surpassing even those earlier and legendary performances. Argerich has never sounded on better terms with the piano, more virtuoso yet engagingly human. Lyrical and insinuating, to a degree her performance seems to be made of the tumultuous elements themselves, of fire and ice, rain and sunshine. The Russians may claim this concerto for themselves, but even they will surely listen in disbelief, awed and – dare one say it – a trifle piqued. Listen to Argerich’s Allegro con spirito, as the concerto gets under way, where her darting crescendos and diminuendos make the triplet rhythm speak with the rarest vitality and caprice. Her nervous reaching out towards further pianistic frays in the heart-easing second subject is pure Argerich and so are the octave storms in both the first and third movements that will have everyone, particularly her partners, tightening their seat belts. The cadenza is spun off with a hypnotic brilliance, the central Prestissimo from the Andantino becomes a true ‘scherzo of fireflies’, and the finale seems to dance off the page; a far cry from more emphatic Ukrainian point-making and brutality.

http://www.gramophone.co.uk/editorial/tchaikovskys-piano-concertos