Every Rozhdestvensky disc is an event. He is a most joyous communicator and
I still deeply lament his decision to leave the BBCSO all those years ago
(1982?). His years with the BBC were ones of enterprise and new experiences:
exploration of the old and the new. As I have said before, BBCTV broadcasts
of his concerts lit up our understanding of what ignites his interest. That
factor is a sense of revealed joy in music making; not that the music he
champions has to be happy but he is able to find the spark for the combustible
material in all works whether Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Delius or Sibelius (when
oh when will someone license his set of the Sibelius symphonies?).
This quality of vividness and concentration at the service of a fellow Russian
is again to be heard here. The Residentie Orchestra play in style and share
the conductor's and the pianist's sense of communicative vitality.
Prometheus plays for 20 minutes. Its mysteries and exaltation are
plain for all those who give themselves up to the music. Some will remain
obdurate but I found the sense of concentration and the utter conviction
which burns in this performance completely compelling. The Fantasy,
in a version orchestrated by the conductor, is given its recorded premiere.
It is a work of Lisztian delicacy and Postnikova's rolling and quietly glittering
harp-like playing sent me right back to the work to hear it again. Finally
we have the one work which makes Scriabin a composer worth coming back to
again and again. This is the early piano concerto. This is a work you have
to hear. If you don't know it already you have a treat in store. Do you enjoy
Rachmaninov, Liszt and Chopin? Do you like tunes you can sing along to? This
work has memorable tunes in each of its three movements and the plum is surely
the Rachmaninovian melody that dominates the middle movement tema con
variazioni.
Happily recommended.
Reviewer
Rob Barnett
Viktoria
Postnikova (piano) Residentie Orchestra, the Hague/Gennadi Rozhdestvensky
