SERGEY PROKOFIEV – The 5 Piano Concertos: No. 1, Op. 10 in D Flat Major; No. 2, Op. 16 in G minor; No. 3, Op. 26 in C Major; No. 4, Op. 53 in B Flat Major; No. 5, Op. 55 in G Major – Boris Berman, piano/ Horacio Gutiérrez, piano (in Nos. 2 & 3)/Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra/Neeme Järvi – Chandos Classics CHAN 10522(2 CDs) X, 75:14, 48:09 [Distr. by Naxos] *****:
All five of the Prokofiev piano concertos demonstrate a similar style of angular leaps among notes, massed chordal effects, some lovely original melodies, and often an ascerbic cutting edge and ferocity, that are found in his piano sonatas and other keyboard works. He came up with his short but full-scale First Concerto as the work he would himself perform for the Rubinstein Competition, instead of the conventional classic concerto other pianists selected. The Second Concerto is not only the longest of the five, but is considered one of the most difficult piano concertos in the literature. It has a wild temperament, bold orchestral colors and shows an occasional sinister streak as heard in some of his solo piano works. The composer had to re-write the concerto from memory after his original score was destroyed during the Russian Revolution.
Prokofiev composed most of the concertos for performances by himself. By the time of the Third Concerto he had left the Soviet Union to travel in Europe and America before returning to his homeland in the 1930s. His Third Concerto abounds in an aggressive spirit matched with some touching lyrical passages which characterized much of his music from this period onward. The middle slow movement of the three-movement work is based on five variations on a theme. It has been so popular ever since its premiere that it was the only one of this concertos which the composer was asked to record himself (and his version is still a classic – on Naxos Historical in a fine remastering).
The Fourth Concerto (1931) was an exception to those the composer wrote for himself, being a commission from the Austrian pianist Paul Wittgenstein, who had lost his right arm during WWI, and for whom other composers had also written works for Left Hand Alone. It plays great demands on the finger technique of that left hand. For his last piano concerto, Prokofiev created a finger-busting five-movement work that is less tonal than his other four concertos and whose technical challenges daunted other pianists once the composer had premiered the work in several cities. Three of its movements are filled with high-speed virtuoso runs, interspersed with contrasting lyrical passages.
This set is one of eight different reissue albums of Prokofiev works on Chandos, including the complete symphonies conducted by Järvi. These Piano Concertos with Berman and Gutierrez are recommended on the Prokofiev Page at Wikipedia. The original recordings were made around 1990 and the sonics on the reissues are excellent.
– John Sunier
