October 19, 2015

  • Shostakovich Piano Concerti

     

    Shostakovich: Piano Concertos
    Anna Vinnitskaya, piano. Ivan Rudin, piano. Tobias Willner, trumpet.
    Kremerata Baltica, Winds of the Staatskapelle Dresden/Omer Meir Wellber
    Alpha Classics 203
    Total Time:  49:51
    Recording:   ****/****
    Performance: (*)***/****

    Pianist Anna Vinnitskaya one might say grew up in a very “Shostakovich” environment.  Her parents taught at the conservatory that bears his name, and later she would perform the second concerto at the age of eleven.  She made her debut at the International Shostakovich Festival in Dresden in 2014.  These Gohrisch concerts were the backdrop for the present recordings made at that time.   The program includes both concerti and two works for two pianos.

    The first concerto is from 1933.  Some of the modernism is still there but it is alongside more Romantic gestures.  A touch of jazz and even neo-classical elements have now become part of the musical fabric and sometimes it feels like we are in one of those 1920s movie halls.  The work is for strings with an added trumpet that adds a bit of additional color and ambience to the sound.  Cast in four movements, it already feels like the boundaries are being pushed.  It also bears allusions and direct quotes to works of Beethoven, Haydn, and Liszt.  Beethoven’s shadow is cast most in the final cadenza.  Liszt somewhat shows up in the very brief minute-and-a-half third movement.  The slow movement is at times simply beautiful, but of course it is the outer movements that have the most fascinating wit and rhythmic ideas, especially the rondo at the end with its fast variety of gallop-like thematic threads.  Shostakovich’s nose-thumbing work still manages to come together quite nicely, though it was essentially unheard after its first performance until the 1950s.  With all these shifts, Vinnitskaya conducts this work from the piano and things seem to go along very well.  High string passages are handled well and rhythmic accents and crisp and clear.  The final movement breezes along in this engaging performance.

    The more familiar Piano Concerto No. 2 in F, Op. 102 (1957) was written for his son Maxim’s 19th birthday.  He premiered it at the Moscow Conservatory as part of his graduation concert.  Shostakovich returned to the three-movement form for this work.  The external movements have a march-like feel, perhaps reflecting a bit of optimism in the midst of a slightly sardonic feel at times.  The central andante though moves us into a more lyrical and reflective moment among the composer’s most beautiful pieces.  For this concerto, the Dresden winds are added to the string ensemble.  The sound here is really well balanced and the performances themselves have an energy and sense of excitement that really bubbles along in the outer movements.  The central movement is very moving as well.

    As a couple of bonuses, the album includes a couple of works for two pianos.  The first is the somewhat substantial Concertino in a, Op. 94 (1953), another work written for his then 10-year-old son Maxim.  It makes for an interesting piece that features that blend of melancholy reflection and sense of colored optimism inherent in works of this period.  An encore of a Tarantella brings this program to a close.  The piece is adapted from the composer’s score for The Gadfly.  It was the last piece he would write for piano.

    The recording throughout is well-engineered.  The balance brings the piano forward somewhat but actually it fits quite realistically into the overall sound.  Even when the orchestra quietly mumbles beneath the massive technical passages it is still perfectly matched.  Vinnitskaya makes an impressive interpreter of these pieces tending to a less strong-armed approach.  Sometimes her playing recalls that of Alicia de Larrocha, especially in the slow movement.  Of course, there is just a lot of competition in this repertoire and pairing.  The album in that respect is a bit short on playing time, and that may be a bit of a detriment.  Most likely she will return to these pieces again so this present release becomes an interesting keepsake of this festival performance that will be used to compare to her development as an artist.