YEVGENY SVETLANOV: Piano Concerto in C Minor; SCRIABIN: Symphony No. 3 “The Divine Poem” – Saint Petersburg Academic Symphony Orchestra/Alexander Dmitriev; Vladimir Ochinnikov, piano – Water Lily

The Svetlanov concerto is quite a surprise.  This important figure
in Soviet musical life is known in the West as a conductor – not a
pianist or composer – which it seems he equally was. He was writing
under the thumb of the Soviet system which insisted on conservative and
super-accessible music for the masses. As a pianist in his own right he
was very familiar with the great Romantic piano concertos and emulated
some of their virtuoso qualities in his two-movement concerto. 
Some of the themes are highly romantic and almost Hollywoodish but
thoroughly delightful – providing an interesting contrast with the
serialized dogma which had become solidified in Western academia at the
time.  This concerto would be a big hit on U.S. concert programs
if it were performed today.

The Third Symphony of Scriabin predates his most experimental musical
works and sounds like modernized Tchaikovsky, but its outline shows his
predilection for optimistic and mystical philosophies. Transfiguration
of the “hero” of this work and his leaving behind earthbound restraints
is part of the program.  The work is a lush hothouse jungle of
orchestral perorations. The purist two-mike recording approach used
here by Water Lily seems to aid the music taking wing better than other
technical means.  And nobody does Scriabin like the Russians. The
moment the opening of the work was heard I started to get goose-bumps,
but be warned I’m a nut on Scriabin. 

I don’t know why only this one of the Water Lily St. Petersburg
recordings was released stereo-only instead of mixed for multichannel
as in the others, but I found feeding it thru Pro Logic II achieved a
very enjoyable surround field.  One observation applies to all of
the Water Lily hi-res offerings: the realism of the applause at the end
of the performances is startling.  One of the very best tests of
fidelity is how much the applause sounds like the real thing.  And
this does – more than I’ve heard on any other recent live recording.
Could be the lack of phase cancellation due to the purist Blumlein
miking, I don’t know, but it’s quite astounding.  Even more so on
the surround SACDs, which reminded me of the realism of binaural
recordings I have made sitting in churches and halls where people were
applauding around me.

– John Sunier