TCHAIKOVSKY
Piano Concertos Nos. 1; 2 & 3; Concert Fantasy for
piano & orchestra; Philharmonia/ Fedoseyev
/Pletnev (piano)
Virgin Classics VBD5614632
Crotchet
Amazon UK Amazon USA
I have reviewed for
Seen&Heard
[May 2000,
q.v.] two concerts in which Mikhail Pletnev played the
complete works of Tchaikowsky for piano and orchestra. In connection with
this concert series I have had a brief opportunity to sample Pletnev's CDs,
again with the Philharmonia, but conducted by Vladimir Fedoseyev, who appears
to have enjoyed an equally close and sympathetic rapport with his soloist
as did Vladimir Conta in the live concerts. So far as I can work it out,
although all of the concertos (except for the Concert Phantasy, recorded
at Walthamstow) were recorded in Abbey Road Studio 1, the set-ups differed
slightly between sessions, as do the levels on the CDs. No 3, to which I
listened first, surprised me pleasantly by replicating very much a concert
perspective, albeit it in a rather reverberant acoustic, but the sort of
sound which must have been common in 19th C. concert halls. The balance is
very similar to that heard at RFH, so that the piano emerges from within
the orchestra in a realistic way which is all too uncommon in studio CDs.
I have enjoyed these recordings hugely. The notes are somewhat perfunctory,
and perhaps another reviewer will evaluate the competition, but this double
CD is being sold surprisingly inexpensively, and should be snapped up even
if you have other versions.
Reviewer
Peter Grahame Woolf
