Sergei PROKOFIEV (1891-1953)
Piano Concerto No.1 in D flat major Op.10 (1914) [16.29]
Piano Concerto No.2 in G minor Op.16 (1924) [32.09]
Piano Concerto No.4 in B flat major Op.53 (1931) [22.46]
Alexander Gavrylyuk (piano)
Sydney Symphony Orchestra/Vladimir Ashkenazy
rec. The Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House, 2009
EXTON SACD HYBRID EXCL 00044 [72.22]
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 previous reviewed issue of Nos.3 and 5. 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
Decent performances of three concertos. Exton's disappointing recording pushes
the disc out of serious consideration.