Tasmanian-born Eileen Joyce (1912-91) was a pianist of unique charisma whose radiance and volatility held her vast audiences transfixed until her dangerously high-pitched career became submerged in a welter of publicity and a pace too fast for her—or anyone else—to bear. Three and even four concertos a night and recital after recital took their inevitable toll. Her playing lost its quality and within a short time she became a tragic victim of her own success, virtually retiring from public life at the age of 42.
A prolific recording artist (a disc a month over a ten-year period), Joyce specialized in romantic show-stoppers, and although d'Albert's Scherzo is sadly cut here, it is reeled off with a witty and scintillating disregard for difficulty that will enthral all lovers of pianistic wizardry. Her tone, too, whether magisterial in Bach/Liszt or delicate in Mozart, is a marvel of variety, clarity and refinement and while her Brahms (the Intermezzos, Opp. 76 No. 6 and 117 No. 2) and Rachmaninov (Prelude in E flat, Op. 23 No. 6) are too fraught to capture fully their autumnal undertow, her way with Grieg's Melodie is unforgettably haunting and stylish. Her Debussy ''Toccata'' (Pour le piano) too, suggests, in its mischievously twinkling and inflected detail, how her playing evolved with a truly glorious disregard for received wisdom, French or otherwise; few pianists have communicated such unalloyed joy in music-making. Small wonder that her admirers included Glenn Gould, Ivan Davis and Earl Wild, to name but three.
Pearl's transfers of recordings dating from Joyce's great years (1933-41) are impressive and form an invaluable taster or trailer for future issues already planned by Testament.'