This hybrid SACD is only stereo, not multi-channel.
We will start with specifics. Prokofiev wrote the first concerto
at the age of just 20 and though early it still sounds characteristic
of the composer. The big tune will either get under your skin
or just irritate you. It is used repeatedly. Gavrylyuk is completely
on top of the piece in all its contrasting moods. His passage-work
in the first rapid section after the big tune is beautifully clean
and he never sounds remotely stretched. The first few minutes
of the second concerto are a pleasant surprise in being lyrical
and relaxed. Gavrylyuk is as gentle here as he is energetic elsewhere.
He really is an impressive artist. The second is a very fine concerto
with a huge emotional range and pianistic demands to match. The
fourth concerto was written for the one-armed pianist Paul Wittgenstein,
older brother of the philosopher Ludwig. He showed a good deal
less subtlety of thought than his younger brother - admittedly
in another field! - by rejecting it with the words "Thank
you for the concerto, but I do not understand a single note of
it and shall not play it." He was similarly ungracious with
the other compositions written for him - Ravel, Korngold, Britten,
Strauss and Hindemith amongst them - but he did at least play
them. The sleeve-note by Yvonne Frindle is a good read on this
as it is on the concerto in general and on No.1. Gordon Kerry
is no less interesting on No.2.
The disappointments are twofold: the overall conception of the
concertos and the recording. Had the latter been better I might
not have been driven to listen to the CD set by Béroff/Masur on
EMI Classics (originally 1974) and the 1975 LPs by Ashkenazy/Previn
on Decca. It became obvious what was worrying me throughout this
SACD and the complementary issue of Nos.3 and 5 (see
review).
With Ashkenazy in charge of the normally excellent Sydney Symphony
Orchestra we have a pairing of musicians that promises a great
deal. Ashkenazy knows these concertos from both sides of the keyboard
and Gavrylyuk has drawn critical comparison with Horowitz no less.
Béroff and Masur made one of the first complete cycles just a
year before Ashkenazy and Previn though there have been others
since. Resorting to that dreadful weapon, the stopwatch, I noted
a consistent pattern. Almost every slow movement showed Gavrylyuk
to be faster than the other two soloists and in nearly every fast
movement he is slower. The end result is that the contrast between
fast and slow is considerably less in these new recordings than
in either of the older sets. That alone can explain the uneasy
feeling that nothing was as exciting as I had expected. What is
worse, and frankly just a touch disgraceful, is that both the
1970s recordings - standard 'Red-Book' CD and LP both - show a
clean pair of heels to this Exton SACD - to be sure I checked
the Exton CD layer, it is worse still. First the piano is better
balanced against the orchestra. Gavrylyuk overwhelms the texture
regularly which neither Ashkenazy nor Béroff do. The orchestral
detail is clean and clear on EMI and Decca. The hall acoustic
is present on both - on the Decca the underground trains beneath
the Kingsway Hall are also clear! The piano is the right size
on both old sets. Gavrylyuk is playing a piano as wide as a symphony
orchestra. The entire Exton issue is mastered at a noticeably
higher level than the EMI CD and it shouts at the listener. I
suspect multi-miking and careless production. The booklet refers
to it being mixed and mastered in Yokohama; maybe by different
engineers? The result is a recessed and foggy Sydney Orchestra.
They are given little chance to show their skill. Having heard
both pianist and conductor live recently, not in the same concerts,
I know they do better than this.
The review is of the SACD layer.
Dave Billinge
Alexander Gavrylyuk (piano) 
