COMPOSERS: Bizet & Rossini,Liszt
LABELS: RCA Red Seal
ALBUM TITLE: Denis Matsuev: A Tribute to Horowitz
WORKS: Carmen Variations; Barbiere Fantasy
PERFORMER: Denis Matsuev
CATALOGUE NO: 82876 61273 2
Ignoring the cheap marketing ploy of
the title, this is at times an electrifying
disc. Winner of the 1998 Tchaikovsky
Competition, Denis Matsuev (b1975)
revels in his own thrilling virtuosity.
His Liszt has an authentic rhetorical
flair, and although he is at his best
in coruscating acrobatics rather than
in poised reflection, he clearly has
a good ear for texture and sonority.
The Second Hungarian Rhapsody
doesn’t have Volodos’s refinement
(Sony), but Matsuev includes his own
deliciously audacious jazz cadenza that
should make you smile. A pianistically
stunning pulverisation of Horowitz’s
Carmen Variations is followed by
a more graceful wit in Ginzburg’s
Barbiere Fantasy (contrary to the
booklet’s claim, not a first recording).
Overall, for all Matsuev’s scorching
virtuosity, one occasionally wishes he
would take a little more time to let the
music breathe. Indeed, this short disc
could easily have included some more
reflective items to balance so much
high-voltage pianism. Tim Parry