Search - Tchaikovsky, Feltsman, Rostropovich :: Piano Concerti 1 & 3

Majestic

David Saemann | 02/25/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I was intrigued by the combination here of two Soviet expatriates, Feltsman and Rostropovich. The recording was made in 1989, a year before Rostropovich made his first return engagements to the U.S.S.R. The First Concerto receives a beautiful performance. Feltsman plays with much passion, and his phrasing seems always idiomatic. It is interesting that Feltsman has made most of his Western career outside the Russian repertoire. He certainly has nothing to be ashamed of in his understanding of this music. Rostropovich's accompaniment is big, broad, and beautiful. Both artists manage a beautiful slowing up just before the coda of the last movement, a stupendous effect I've heard nowhere else. As for Concerto No. 3, it is played very well, without quite the verve of the performance of the 1st. I prefer to hear No. 3 with the Taneyev completion, as in the excellent Bernd Glemser version on Naxos. Nevertheless, for the recording of No. 1 this is quite a find, and the sound engineering is full and warm, if a little misty."