The Art of the Tchaikovsky
Piano Transcription is alive and well
and its name is Alexei Volodin. Or,
to put it rather more precisely, the
transcriptions are those of Mikhail
Pletnev but the pianism here is all
Volodin’s. Pletnev has recast and refashioned
the ballet scores to such an extent
that they can be seen in a new compositional
light. Indeed Pletnev has recorded his
Sleeping Beauty (on Philips). Both suites
omit the big, grand Waltzes for example
and do depart from the better-known
orchestral scores in a number of telling
ways, not least in freely reordering
the movements. This gives fluidity and
emotional heart to the transcriptions,
and a concision that transmutes these
feelings the more tellingly.
Even lazy listening
would alert one, as early as the Prologue
of The Sleeping Beauty, to something
unusually perspicacious in Volodin’s
playing. The left-hand accents are rhythmically
galvanizing in the subtlest way and
elsewhere one becomes aware of his clarity
and precision of articulation (sample
the Dance of the Pages). There’s refinement
here of a persuasive kind and his playing
of the slow movements – such as the
Andante – is equally auspicious. There’s
limpid delicacy to spare in the Adagio
that leads onto to the concluding dance
finale. The Nutcracker suite is shorter
but full of the same virtues. In fact
the highlight of the disc is the Andante
maestoso here (from Act II) in which
the then twenty-five year old pianist
gives us a veritable master class in
romantic phrasing, enjoying – unselfconsciously
– the colour and the lyric beauty of
the music. His Stravinsky is just as
good; in fact the rhythmic surety he
displays in Tchaikovsky is put to even
greater utility in the Stravinsky.
The recorded sound,
whilst full and warm, is very slightly
diffuse but it certainly does nothing
to eclipse the tonal and expressive
virtues of this highly talented St Petersburg-born
pianist.
Jonathan Woolf
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Alexei Volodin (piano) 
