Recorded in July 1993 and released to critical acclaim, Demidenko's extraordinary performances have been reintroduced to the current market by Hyperion's budget label, and at a pleasingly low price. This is a recording that captivates on first hearing and both invites and sustains repeated hearings.

Scriabin wrote his Piano Concerto in F sharp minor over a few days in 1896, completed the orchestration the following year and premiered the work on 23 October 1897. The concerto is unashamedly Romantic, its orchestration suggesting Chopin and indeed the piano writing occasionally sounding like a Chopinesque Nocturne. However, as the brief but informative album booklet notes here, this is not a 'big' work, but rather a composition that prides itself on refinement of expression and subtlety of feeling. Even the virtuosic rising-toppling first theme in the Allegro moderato carries with it a sense of intimacy and subtle beauty. Throughout, dramatic interplay between pithy memorable ideas takes precedence over vast sweeping Romantic lines.

Demidenko makes a tremendously strong case for a work that was variously well received around the world and was a favourite of Rachmaninov, but that has curiously dropped from the popular repertoire. The central movement - a set of variations - displays the pianist's command of his keyboard. Delicately balancing arpeggiated solo passages on a finely spun clarinet line, instantly conjuring drama with the arrival of the scherzo passage, wallowing in the piano's graceful bel canto decorations: Demidenko's touch throughout is firm and smooth, his range of expression great. The concluding Allegro moderato draws from him a much stronger, occasionally angrier touch, yet even here the piano's dynamic frequently drops, producing passages of the most tender introspection.

Little more can be done with Tchaikovsky's popular first concerto, completed in 1874-75, yet here the work seems rejuvenated. The BBC Symphony Orchestra under Alexander Lazarev provide luscious string accompaniment throughout, perfectly intonated yet deeply resonant and passionate, with a wide dynamic range. In the Andantino simplice, the string pizzicati are kisses, the legato lines whispers. Demidenko explores the sonorities of the Royal Festival Hall's Steinway piano, producing a bright yet intimate tone in the middle register and a distinctive and thrilling harshness down below.

In the final movement, the piano converses excitingly with the woodwind (featuring beautifully airy flutes) and the huge expectant crescendo is unbearably stirring. Demidenko unleashes the piano's full dynamic potential only in the final exuberant coda. Before then, even in the second movement's Prestissimo section, the virtuosic passagework is a model of delicacy and restraint. This is a reading of the highest lucidity and musicality.

  share with:  Facebook | Digg | other sites