COMPOSERS: Tchaikovsky
LABELS: Decca Double Decca
WORKS: Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor; Piano Concerto No. 2 in G; Piano Concerto No. 3 in E flat; Violin Concerto in D
PERFORMER: Victoria Postnikova (piano), Kyung-Wha Chung (violin); Vienna SO/Gennadi Rozhdestvensky, Montreal SO/Charles Dutoit
CATALOGUE NO: 448 107-2 DDD (1982-4)
Enough tunes and pyrotechnics to keep everyone happy. But only Kyung-Wha Chung really knows how to deliver: her re-make of the Violin Concerto is a modern yardstick. Despite the bonus of an uncut Second, Postnikova isn’t so successful, favouring a heavy-handed, over-pedalled, texturally dense approach that just about kills off every famous moment. Her B flat minor alone takes eight minutes longer than Horowitz. The current budget competition leader – the racing, leonine, physically electrifying 1972 Gilels/Maazel set (EMI) – blazes other trails. If you can live with Siloti’s detrimental digest of the Second (Gilels’s habitual preference) go for it. It’s exhilarating. Ates Orga
Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor; Piano Concerto No. 2 in G; Piano Concerto No. 3 in E flat; Violin Concerto in D
Enough tunes and pyrotechnics to keep everyone happy. But only Kyung-Wha Chung really knows how to deliver: her re-make of the Violin Concerto is a modern yardstick. Despite the bonus of an uncut Second, Postnikova isn’t so successful, favouring a heavy-handed, over-pedalled, texturally dense approach that just about kills off every famous moment. Her B flat minor alone takes eight minutes longer than Horowitz. The current budget competition leader – the racing, leonine, physically electrifying 1972 Gilels/Maazel set (EMI) – blazes other trails.
Our rating
2
Published: January 20, 2012 at 3:06 pm