By gmms
11-Oct-2009

Excellent performances, check out Tozer on Chandos as well!  Sometimes you get obsessed by a composer, and you discover new performers. Sometimes, it's the other way around: you get to like certain performers and that introduces you to music you'd never heard of before! This is the case for me with the three albums of Respighi's piano music available on Naxos. I have purchased many of Scherbakov's recordings in the past (Godowsky Piano Music, Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto cycle, Medtner Concerto cycle & Liapunov Transcendental Studies to name a few) and been consistently wowed by his technique and musicality. So seeing his name on 3 disks of Respighi's music made me curious to listen to a composer I'd only previosuly associated with violin music. The fact that Geoffrey Tozer - another favourite pianist of mine - also recorded the Piano Concertos for Chandos (also available via ClassicsOnline) pushed me over the edge and I splashed out at once on all 3 disks.

Trying to describe Respighi's style is difficult - it seems to combine old (Italian music and forms of the 17th century, Bach) and new (more than a hint of Debussy, Bartok and Prokofiev) and still produce a very personal idiom. I can't believe I've had to wait so long to hear such wonderful music!

This disk consists of the Concerto a Cinque and the Concerto in Modo Misolidio. I've listened especially to the 2nd piece and the performance is superb, although very different to the (equally excellent) Tozer performance. Scherbakov is much faster than Tozer, and played in this way, the music generates an irresistible drive and power. I particularly love the 2nd and 3rd movments of the Concerto in Modo Misolidio.

All in all, wonderful music & great performances from Scherbakov once more.more....