Russian pianist Arcadi Volodos has been known for high-powered Liszt performances and for gee-whiz transcriptions of works like Mozart's Rondo alla turca that seem to add an impossible collection of polyphonic lines to the music. All that could have been expected from this 2003 recording of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23, was another big, powerful interpretation to join the others already out there. What Volodos, Ozawa, and the Berlin Philharmonic produced instead was something completely ...
Read More
Russian pianist Arcadi Volodos has been known for high-powered Liszt performances and for gee-whiz transcriptions of works like Mozart's Rondo alla turca that seem to add an impossible collection of polyphonic lines to the music. All that could have been expected from this 2003 recording of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23, was another big, powerful interpretation to join the others already out there. What Volodos, Ozawa, and the Berlin Philharmonic produced instead was something completely unexpected: a revisionist reading of the concerto and of a group of short Rachmaninov solo works to round out the album. Volodos deploys full power only sparingly, makes every note crystal clear, and finds as much emotion in the work's quiet spaces as in its big themes. Jump into the first movement and hear how the tempo varies and yet fits into larger overall arcs, with exquisite breaths being taken at the movement's section-dividing modulations. One point in favor of Volodos' delicate,...
Read Less
Portions of content provided by Rovi Corporation. © 2024 Rovi Corporation.