The picture on the insert back cover of Yuri Temirkanov standing with Denis Matsuev looks to me like a conscious imitation of the Karajan-Kissin collaboration around 20 years ago. And it was RCA who gave us the Cliburn-Kondrashin Tchaikovsky concerto from 1957. Now, the world’s most famous piano concerto has another young titan in Denis Matsuev (b. 1975), winner of the 1998 International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. Passion and poetry mark the conception by Matsuev and Temirkanov–who while rehearsing the Atlanta Symphony, as a guest-conductor berated the orchestra for “snip, snipping” the ends of phrases–playing each of the phrases twice in the manner of Schumann Concerto. The powerful cadenza and ensuing coda have girth and sinew, but not quite the granite that Richter etched out of the score, again with Karajan. Temirkanov makes his own points with a balletic gesture or two, as is Tchaikovsky’s wont.
The Andantino semplice is among the more lovely realizations that I have encountered, with beguiling mix of piano, cello, and oboe. This fine chemistry makes me wonder if Matsuev might have made a deeper impression by inscribing the Tchaikovsky G Major Concerto. Nice collaborative entry by the orchestra after Matsuev’s fierce runs, then the da capo over a long horn pedal. The Allegro con fuoco has every new pianist trying to outdo Horowitz for sheer speed and bravura, but Temirkanov reminds us that these Ukrainian tunes can sing, too. The graduated peroration is a thing of colorful beauty, the tympani underlining a blistering run to judgment by Matsuev. A warm, heartfelt coda combines tenderness and fire, an impressive accounting from all principals.
The 1933 C Minor Concerto for Piano and Trumpet makes a lyrically sardonic complement to the Tchaikovsky, each composer a stubborn iconoclast in his own way. Blazing colloquys from piano and trumpet, with Matsuev revealing a real penchant for Shostakovich’s cantering, neo-classical, staccato style and his sudden forays into sentiment. How much this mercurial music makes me think of Medtner! Temirkanov keeps the chamber orchestra bustling throughout the first movement and with light feet in the finale. The opening chords of the sweet Lento sound like Satie’s second Gymnopedie. The middle section approaches Bartok for ferocity and assertiveness. The melos has something of both Gershwin and Ravel, and the waltz sequence makes me want to hear Matsuev in the Strauss Burleske. The last movement begins with glitter and then dark, symphonic ambitions–only to break into acrobatic frolics. Fleet fingers from Matsuev call up antic riffs a la Haydn from the trumpet. Quite a romp, easily a digital homage to Shostakovich’s friend and contemporary Prokofiev. Maybe Charlie Chaplin, too. Great sound, courtesy of Alexander Volkov.
— Gary Lemco
